The Space Shuttle Discovery is a reusable spacecraft that carried astronauts into space and is now displayed at the National Air and Space Museum.

The Space Shuttle Discovery flew every kind of mission an orbiter was meant to fly. As a historical object in the Museum's collection, it embodies the 30-year history of U.S. human spaceflight from …

The Space Shuttle program ran from presidential approval in 1972 to its end in 2011. It was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the United States and NASA. The Space Shuttle, …

In total, six of unique Space Shuttle orbiters were built but Discovery stands out with the greatest flight history record: 39 missions and 365 total days spent in space. That’s quite a feat for the …

Discovery entered service in 1984 as the third orbiter in the space shuttle fleet. Columbia and Challenger had already flown a total of 11 missions as America’s “space truck.” Discovery’s first …

It took six tireless weeks to capture Space Shuttle Discovery, inside and out. An epic project creates an epic amount of data, 4.2 TB to be precise. These datasets were created using a variety of …

In 1984, Discovery ascended into space for the first time, after three thwarted launch attempts. Originally scheduled to lift off in June 1984, Discovery launched on August 30 as the twelfth …

The space shuttle Discovery is the centerpiece of the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

The Udvar-Hazy Center displays thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Discovery and a Concorde, in two large hangars.

When John Glenn boarded the shuttle orbiter Discovery he was 77 years old—the oldest person yet to venture into space.