Discovery's Final Flight

Space shuttle Discovery, on 9 March 2011, concludes the final mission with a safe landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

By its last mission, Discovery had flown 148 million miles (238 million km) in 39 missions, completed 5,830 orbits, and spent 365 days in orbit over 27 years. Discovery is the Orbiter Fleet leader, having flown more flights than any other Orbiter Shuttle in the fleet, including four in 1985 alone. Discovery flew all three "return to flight" missions after the Challenger and Columbia disasters: STS-26 in 1988, STS-114 in 2005, and STS-121 in 2006. Discovery flew the third to last Space Shuttle mission, STS-133, having launched on (NET) February 24, 2011. Endeavour will be the next shuttle to fly aboard STS-134 and Atlantis will be NASA's last Space Shuttle mission to be launched aboard STS-135 mission. Discovery safely completed its final mission on March 9, 2011.