A voyage of Discovery: a look back at one of Nasa's most important space shuttles

Hubble, Ulysses and returning to space: the Discovery space shuttle has a special place in Nasa's history

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Discovery (OV-103) wasn't the first shuttle to join the Orbiter fleet, but the rocket has been at the forefront of some of America's most important space missions.

Since its first flight in August 1984, Discovery has completed 39 successful missions and has made more flights than any other orbiter in Nasa’s fleet. As part of its work, Discovery has spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,380 times and travelled an impressive 148, 221, 6745 miles.

Why Discovery?

Discovery carries on the tradition of Nasa’s rockets being named after historic, exploration ships of the past. One of the first Discovery ships was a vessel in the early 1600s, which was commandeered by Henry Hudson to explore Hudson Bay and search for a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The first mission

Testing the waters, Discovery was launched for the first time in August 30, 1984. It launched three communication satellites and tested an experimental solar array wing, under the leadership of astronaut Henry W. Hartsfield.

Read more: The future of Nasa: what's next for the agency, its robots and its plans to get to Mars

The legacy of Discovery

The shuttle has a special place in Nasa history as it was the rocket chosen to carry the Hubble Space Telescope into space during mission STS-31 in April 1990. In order to launch Hubble into an orbit that guaranteed longevity, Discovery soared to a record altitude of 600km.

The launch of Hubble marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope in 1610. Discovery was also involved in providing both the second and third Hubble servicing missions, STS-82 in February 1997 and STS-103 in December 1999.

Without Discovery, we wouldn’t have knowledge about some of Hubble’s greatest discoveries. Just recently, scientists spotted water plumes on Jupiter’s Europa’s surface using the telescope, meaning we could potentially explore Europa’s oceans more and explore if life is on the moon.

Thanks to Discovery, we have more information about the universe than we thought would be possible.

After Hubble, Discovery was also chosen to launch the Ulysses spacecraft in October 1990, on mission STS-41. Ulysses was launched to study the never-before-examined north of south poles of the Sun. It became one of the most important contributors to the knowledge of the solar activity cycle by collecting data on solar wind, interstellar dust and the three-dimensional character of solar radiation. Ulysses’ mission ended in 2009.

The spaceship’s legacy lives on in other ways, too. It was chosen as the Return to Flight orbiter twice. After the January 1986 Challenger accident, when the Challenger space shuttle exploded and killed seven astronauts, Nasa took a break from space flights in order to improve the technology and prevent an accident of this nature again. The Return to Flight missions were significant because it was a signal that Nasa was resuming its exploratory programme again.

Discovery was chosen as the Return to Flight orbiter in 1988 for Mission STS-26, two years after the Challenger accident. On the second Return to Flight journey, it carried the STS-114 crew to the International Space Station (ISS) in July 2005. This took place after the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Discovery’s last mission

The space shuttle’s final flight took place in February 2011 and saw the ship being used to attach a new module to the ISS, as well as help the residents there outfit the orbiting lab for ISS’s continued research. When Discovery was docked at the ISS, it was a rare occasion when vehicles from the US, Russia, Europe and Japan were all connected to the space station at the same time.

After the mission, when Discovery landed safely back in Florida in a month later, Nasa's scientists were saddened to see the end of its work in space. Steve Lindsey, commander of Discovery's last flight, said at the time: “As the minutes pass, I’m getting sadder and sadder about this being the last flight and I know all the folks involved with the shuttle program feel the same way.”

"We wanted to go out on a high note and Discovery's done that," added Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "We couldn't ask for more."

Where is Discovery now?

After Discovery's final flight, Nasa’s associate administrator for Space Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier said the rocket’s legacy was its future and the contributions it has made, and will continue to make, to science.

When it was decommissioned, parts of it were analysed for wear in order to inform the next generation of Nasa research. Since then, it has been deployed to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C where you can visit the orbiter in all its finery.

The Discovery images are part of WIRED's Nasa issue, an exclusive look behind the scenes at the past and future of the space agency. See more of the Nasa coverage here.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK