About Space Shuttle Discovery

Discovery has earned a place of honor in the collection of national treasures preserved by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The longest-serving orbiter, Discovery flew 39 times from 1984 through 2011 — more missions than any of its sister ships — spending altogether 365 days in space. Discovery also flew every type of mission during the space shuttle era and has a record of distinctions. Discovery well represents the full scope of human spaceflight in the period 1981-2011.
- Satellite delivery and retrieval, Department of Defense, scientific, Hubble Space Telescope, Mir, and space station assembly, crew exchange, and resupply missions
- Three Hubble Space Telescope missions: deployment (1990) servicing (1997, 1999)
- Highest crew count: 251
- First non-astronaut to fly on space shuttle, Charles Walker (1984)
- Flown aboard Discovery: Sen. Jake Garn (1985) and Sen. John Glenn (1998)
- Served as Return-to-Flight vehicle after Challenger and Columbia tragedies (1988, 2005)
- Flown by first African American commander, Frederick Gregory (1989)
- Piloted by first female spacecraft pilot, Eileen Collins (1995), and by Pamela Melroy on her first flight as pilot (2000)
- Flew 100th shuttle mission (2000)
- Flown by both women commanders, Eileen Collins (2005) and Pamela Melroy (2006)
- Made first visit to Mir, rendezvous without docking (1995)
- Made final docking visit to Mir space station (1998)
- Made first docking with International Space Station (1999)
- Delivered trusses, Harmony node, Kibo laboratory module, Robonaut2, Leonardo module, and tons of supplies to International Space Station (1999-2011)
Discovery Mission Roster
- 8 communications satellite delivery flights (1984-1989, 1995)
- 4 Department of Defense flights (1985-1992)
- 9 flights with science labs, instruments, probes as primary payloads (1990-1998)
- 3 Hubble Space Telescope flights (1990 deployment and 2 servicing visits, 1997, 1999)
- 2 flights to Russian space station Mir (1995, 1998)
- 13 flights to the International Space Station (1999-2011)