Space Shuttle Discovery's Final Launch

February 24, 2011
NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery will make its last trip into low Earth orbit today. Discovery will be traveling to the International Space Station, carrying a large module packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as a robotic assistant named Robonaut 2.

With the entire Space Shuttle program scheduled for mandatory retirement this year, Discovery is the most-flown spacecraft in history, traveling 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) over the course of its 39 missions since 1984, and spending nearly a full year in orbit. This mission, STS-133, is scheduled for liftoff at 4:50 p.m Eastern Time.

Gathered here are images of Discovery, its crew, and support staff from the past several months, while the spacecraft was being prepared for today's launch.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, shuttle Discovery pauses in between Orbiter Processing Facility-3 and the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) during a move called "rollover" on September 9th, 2010. Once inside the VAB, the shuttle will be joined to its solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank. Later, Discovery was scheduled to "rollout" to Launch Pad 39A for its launch to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission. (NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

The underside of space shuttle Discovery is visible in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station soon after the shuttle and station began their post-undocking relative separation on April 17th, 2010. Undocking ended a stay of 10 days, 5 hours and 8 minutes.The recognizable feature on Earth below is the south end of Isla de Providencia, about 150 miles off the coast of Nicaragua near 13.3 degrees north latitude 81.4 degrees west longitude. (NASA)

The space shuttle Discovery lands on Kennedy Space Center's Runway 33 Tuesday, April 20, 2010, in (AP Photo/NASA, Bill Ingalls)

Space Shuttle Discovery is towed from the shuttle landing facility to the orbiter processing facility at Kennedy Space Center on April 20, 2010. (Matt Stroshane/Getty Images)