NASA's most heavily traveled spacecraft, the shuttle Discovery, is to launch Thursday on its final mission after a storied, 27-year career that has broken ground in many ways.
Here are some facts about the shuttle and some of its most memorable moments.
– First mission, STS-41D, was on August 30, 1984.
– Has completed 38 missions, and logged more than 5,600 trips around Earth.
– Traveled a total of 142,917,535 miles (230,003,477 kilometers) so far, will add 4.5 million miles (7.2 million kilometers) on this final trip.
– Spent 352 days in space until now, for a total of 363 days by the end of this mission.
– Carried the Hubble space telescope into orbit in April, 1990.
– Has twice been the first shuttle to return to orbit after a major disaster: in 1988 after Challenger exploded in 1986; and again in 2005 after Columbia disintegrated in 2003.
– Is the oldest shuttle in the three-member fleet, due to the demise of Columbia and Challenger which were older.
– Was the first shuttle to be piloted by a woman, Eileen Collins in 1995.
– First shuttle to be commanded by a woman, also Eileen Collins in 1999.
– Carried the first African-American astronaut spacewalker, Bernard Harris in 1995.
– Transported first sitting member of Congress in space, Senator Jake Garn in 1985.
– Delivered part of Japan's Kibo laboratory to the ISS in 2008.
– Was the first shuttle to rendez-vous with the Russian Mir Space Station 1995.
– Has received 99 upgrades.
– By the end of this mission, will have transported 180 people in total.
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