Flights of Discovery (OV-103)

Times Mission Launch Launch Landing Date

Flown Name Crew Pad Date & Site Primary Payload

 1 STS-41D Hartsfield, Coats, Resnik, Mullane, Hawley, Walker 39A 08/30/84 09/05/84 at EAFB SBS-D; SYNCOM IV-2; Solar Wing TELSTAR

 2 STS-51A Hauck, Walker, Fisher, Gardner, Allen 39A 11/08/84 11/16/84 at KSC TELESAT-H; SYNCOM IV-1

 3 STS-51C Mattingly, Shriver, Buchli, Onizuka, Payton 39A 01/24/85 01/27/85 at KSC DoD

 4 STS-51D Bobko, Williams, Seddon, Griggs, Hoffman, Walker, Garn 39A 04/12/85 04/19/85 at KSC TELESAT-1; SYNCOM IV-3

 5 STS-51G Brandenstein, Creighton, Lucid, Nagel, Fabian, Baudry, Salman Al-Saud 39A 06/17/85 06/24/85 at EAFB MORELOS-A; ARABSAT-A; TELSTAR-3D

 6 STS-51I Engle, Covey, Van Hoften, Lounge, Fisher 39A 08/27/85 09/03/85 at EAFB ASC-1; AUSSAT-1; SYNCOM IV-4

 7 STS-26 Hauck, Covey, Lounge, Hilmers, Nelson 39B 09/29/88 10/03/88 at EAFB TDRS-C

 8 STS-29 Coats, Blaha, Buchli, Springer, Bagian 39B 03/13/89 03/18/89 at EAFB TDRS-4

 9 STS-33 Gregory, Blaha, Musgrave, Thornton, Carter 39B 11/22/89 11/27/89 at EAFB DoD

10 STS-31 Shriver, Bolden, Hawley, McCandless, S ullivan 39B 04/24/90 04/29/90 at EAFB Deploy of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

11 STS-41 Richards, Cabana, Shepherd, Melnick, Akers 39B 10/06/90 10/10/90 at EAFB Ulysses; SSBUV; ISAC

12 STS-39 Coats, Hammond, Bluford, Hieb, Harbaugh, McMonagle, Veach 39A 04/28/91 05/06/91 at KSC DoD

13 STS-48 Creighton, Reightler, Brown, Gemar, Buchli 39A 09/12/91 09/18/91 at EAFB UARS

14 STS-42 Grabe, Oswald, Readdy, Merbold,Thagard, Hilmers, Bondar 39A 01/22/92 01/30/92 at EAFB IML-1

15 STS-53 Walker, Cabana, Bluford, Voss, Clifford 39A 12/02/92 12/09/92 at EAFB DoD

16 STS-56 Cameron, Oswald, Cockrell, Foale, Ochoa 39B 04/08/93 04/17/93 at KSC ATLAS-2; SPARTAN-201

17 STS-51 Culbertson, Readdy, Newman, Bursch, Walz 39B 09/12/93 09/22/93 at KSC ACTS/TOS; ORFEUS-SPAS

18 STS-60 Bolden, Reightler, Chang-Diaz, Davis, Sega, Krikalev 39A 02/03/94 02/11/94 at KSC 1st Shuttle-Mir Mission - Wake Shield Facility-1; SPACEHAB-2

19 STS-64 Richards, Hammond, Helms, Meade, Lee, Linenger 39B 09/09/94 09/20/94 at EAFB LITE; SPARTAN-201

20 STS-63 Wetherbee, Collins, Harris, Voss, Foale, Titov 39B 02/03/95 02/11/95 at KSC 2nd Shuttle-Mir Mission - 1st rendezvous; SPACEHAB-3

21 STS-70 Henricks, Kregel, Currie, Thomas, Weber 39B 07/13/95 07/22/95 at KSC TDRS-G

22 STS-82 Bowersox, Horowitz, Lee, Hawley, Harbaugh, Smith, Tanner 39A 02/11/97 02/21/97 at KSC 2nd Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission

23 STS-85 Brown, Rominger, Davis, Curbeam, Robinson, Tryggvason 39A 08/07/97 08/19/97 at KSC CRISTA-SPAS-02; Japanese MFD; TAS-1; IEH-02

24 STS-91 Precourt, Gorie, Lawrence, Chang-Diaz, Kavandi, Ryumin; Thomas (down from Mir) 39A 06/02/98 06/12/98 at KSC 11th Shuttle-Mir Mission - 9th and final docking

25 STS-95 Brown, Lindsey, Parazynski, Robinson, Duque, Mukai, Glenn 39B 10/29/98 11/07/98 at KSC SPACEHAB- SM; Spartan-201; HOST; IEH-03

26 STS-96 Rominger, Husband, Ochoa, Jernigan, Barry, Payette, Tokarev 39B 05/27/99 06/06/99 at KSC 2nd ISS Mission - Orbital Transfer Device; Strela; supplies

27 STS-103 Brown, Kelly, Smith, Foale, Grunsfeld, Nicollier, Clervoy 39B 12/19/99 12/27/99 at KSC 3rd Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission

28 STS-92 Duffy, Melroy, Chiao, McArthur, Wisoff, Lopez-Alegria, Wakata 39A 10/11/00 10/24/00 at EAFB 5th ISS Mission (100th Shuttle Flight) - Zenith Z1 Truss; PMA 3

29 STS-102 Wetherbee, Kelly, Thomas, Richards; Voss, Helms, Usachev (up to ISS); 39B 03/08/01 03/21/01 at KSC 8th ISS Mission - MPLM Leonardo

Shepherd, Gidzenko, Krikalev (down from ISS)

30 STS-105 Horowitz, Sturckow, Barry, Forrester; Culbertson, Tyurin, Dezhurov (up to ISS); 39A 08/10/01 08/22/01 at KSC 11th ISS Mission - Early Ammonia Servicer; MPLM Leonardo

Usachev, Voss, Helms (down from ISS)

31 STS-114 Collins, Kelly, Robinson, Thomas, Camarda, Lawrence, Noguchi 39B 07/26/05 08/09/05 at EAFB 17th ISS Mission (Return to Flight) - MPLM Raffaello; HRF-2; OBSS

32 STS-121 Lindsey, Kelly, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson, Sellers; Reiter (up to ISS) 39B 07/04/06 07/17/06 at KSC 18th ISS Mission - MPLM Leonardo 

33 STS-116 Polansky, Oefelein, Curbeam, Higginbotham, Patrick, Fuglesang; 39B 12/09/06 12/22/06 at KSC 20th ISS Mission - P5 truss; SPACEHAB

Williams (up to ISS); Rieter (down from ISS)

34 STS-120 Melroy, Zamka, Parazynski, Wheelock, Wilson, Nespoli; Tani (up to ISS); 39A 10/23/07 11/07/07 at KSC 23rd ISS Mission - Harmony Node 2

Anderson (down from ISS) 

35 STS-124 Kelly, Ham, Nyberg, Garan, Fossum, Hoshide; Chamitoff (up to ISS); 39A 05/31/08 06/14/08 at KSC 26th ISS Mission - Kibo Pressurized Module 

 Reisman (down from ISS)

36 STS-119 Archambault, Antonelli, Acaba, Arnold, Phillips, Swanson; Wakata (up to ISS); 39A 03/15/09 03/28/09 at KSC 28th ISS Mission - S6 truss

Magnus (down from ISS)

37 STS-128 Sturckow, Ford, Olivas, Forrester, Hernandez, Fuglesang; Stott (up to ISS); 39A 08/28/09 09/11/09 at EAFB 30th ISS Mission - MPLM Leonardo

Kopra (down from ISS)

38 STS-131 Poindexter, Dutton, Anderson, Mastracchio, Metcalf-Lindenburger, Wilson, Yamazaki 39A 04/05/10 04/20/10 at KSC 33rd ISS Mission - MPLM Leonardo

39 STS-133 Lindsey, Boe, Drew, Barratt, Bowen, Stott 39A 02/24/11 03/09/11 at KSC 35th ISS Mission (final mission for Discovery) - PMM; 

ELC-4; Robonaut 2FS-2011-6-133-KSC www.nasa.gov
Discovery was NASA's third space shuttle orbiter to join the fleet at Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida. Discovery also is known inside the space agency by its designation Orbiter Vehicle-103, or OV-103.

Discovery was the first space shuttle retired 

from NASA's fleet in 2011.

The spacecraft will be transported to the

Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Va., near Washington, D.C., in 2012 to be put on permanent public display.

Construction of Discovery began on 

Aug. 27, 1979 and was completed four years later.

Discovery rolled out of the assembly 

plant building in Palmdale, Calif., in October 1983 and first launched Aug. 30, 1984. 

When first flown, Discovery became 

the third operational orbiter, and it currently is the oldest in service.

It was named after two historic, 

Earth-bound exploring ships of the past. One was a vessel used by Henry Hudson in the early 1600s to explore the Hudson Bay and search for a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

The other was one of two ships 

used by the British explorer James Cook in the 1770s. Cook's voyages in the South Pacific led to the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. Another of his ships was the Endeavour, the namesake of NASA’s newest shuttle.

Discovery has had many 

notable flights and was the Return to Flight shuttle following the Challenger and Columbia accidents. 

KEY DISCOVERY MISSIONS

STS-41D - Maiden FlightSTS-26 - Return to Flight after Challenger accidentSTS-31 – Launch of Hubble Space TelescopeSTS-60 – First flight of a Russian cosmonaut on a shuttleSTS-63 – First Mir rendezvous; first female pilotSTS-70 – First on-orbit shift in new Mission Control CenterSTS-82 – Highest altitude known for a shuttle flight STS-91 – Final shuttle-Mir dockingSTS-95 – Flight to return John Glenn to orbit as 

oldest human to fly in space

STS-92 – Installation of the Z1 Integrated 

Truss Structure and PMA-3 to the International 

Space Station

STS-102 – First ISS crew rotation

STS-114 – Return to Flight after Columbia 

accident

STS-116 – P5 Truss installed

STS-124 – Delivery of Japan’s Kibo 

Laboratory to ISS

STS-119 – Completed ISS Integrated Truss Segment

STS-128 – Final use of the shuttle for 

full ISS crew rotation

STS-131: Longest mission for 

Discovery, 15 days

STS-133: Final mission 

THE NUMBERS 

Total miles traveled: 148,221,675

Total time in space: 365 days

Total orbits: 5,830

Total flights: 39Total crew members: 252Mir dockings: 1

 International Space Station  dockings: 13

Pounds of hardware to the 

space station – 31,459 

facts NASA DISCOVERY (OV-103)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration