Smithsonian Discovery

27 years, 39 missions, 149 million miles flown...now, a museum piece in the Smithsonian.

 

The most prolific orbiter shuttle, Discovery flew NASA's return to flight missions after both the Challenger and Columbia disasters, spent over 365 total days in orbit, and carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

 

The third of five orbiter shuttles built, Discovery was a much lighter craft (about 3600 kgs) than Columbia and Challenger, due to design optimizations. In addition to its milestone missions, Discovery was the orbiter which returned John Glenn to space at the age of 77 years, making him the oldest human to endure space travel.

 

Discovery is a key fixture in the Udvar-Házy complex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, where it replaced the non-orbital shuttle, Enterprise, in April 2012.

 

Select Fine Art prints of this and other images can be purchased at bit.ly/ProPeak

 

Recognition:

Silver Award - LightChasers FB photography group #explore2023 Nostalgic category

 

Done