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)

Space Shuttle Discovery Being Rolled Out For The Last Time

September 21, 2010

Space shuttle Discovery rolling out for it's final mission.


The space shuttle Discovery rolled out to its launch pad for what is scheduled to be its final mission. Discovery left the Vehicle Assembly Building at 7:23 pm EDT (2323 GMT), arriving at pad 39A about six and a half hours later. Discovery is scheduled to lift off on November 1 on STS-133, the final scheduled mission for the orbiter. On that 11-day mission, the next to last currently scheduled for the shuttle fleet, Discovery will take the Permanent Multipurpose Module packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2 to the International Space Station.


The winged orbiter, the oldest of NASA's space shuttle fleet, emerged from its maintenance hangar for the last time to journey to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. Once inside the cavernous 52-story building, Discovery will be attached to the twin solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank that will help launch it to the International Space Station.

Discovery's upcoming STS-133 mission will mark the shuttle's 39th flight to space and NASA's 133rd shuttle flight since the fleet began space launches in 1981. It is NASAs second-to-last space shuttle mission before the fleet retires next year.

The shuttle Endeavours STS-134 mission in late February 2011 is scheduled to be the final flight, though an extra mission on the orbiter Atlantis is under consideration. NASA is retiring its shuttle fleet to make way for a new plan to send astronauts to visit an asteroid by 2025.

Discovery's quarter-mile trip between its maintenance hangar and Vehicle Assembly Building was the 41st rollover in 26 years for Discovery, also known by its orbiter designation OV-103.

Discovery has more rollovers than actual space missions because the shuttle had to repeat the trip on two occasions: once for its maiden flight, STS-41D, in 1984 and again in 1991 before the STS-39 mission. In both cases, the re-rollover was due to Discovery needing repair before it could fly.

Discovery's last journey was made atop the same 36-wheeled transport trailer that has moved Discovery and all of NASAs orbiters before each mission.

The trip between a shuttle hangar and the Vehicle Assembly Building typically takes about a half-hour to complete, but NASA parked Discovery outside its hangar for several hours to allow its employees those who worked on the shuttle to pose with spacecraft for one last set of photos.

Once mated to its boosters and fuel tank an hours-long procedure assisted by a crane that is expected to be completed Friday morning Discovery will embark on a different type of roll.

The completely assembled shuttle stack will ride a massive Apollo-era crawler transporter to the 3.4-mile (5.4-km) trip to Launch Pad 39A. At the pad, Discovery will be readied for its November launch and loaded with its payload.