Space Shuttle Discovery.

[coloradodem2005]

Shuttle Orbiter Discovery (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is a NASA Space Shuttle.

First flown on August 30, 1984, Discovery is the third operational shuttle (excluding test shuttle Enterprise), and the oldest remaining in service. The orbiter is still operational today, and has performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions.

The spacecraft takes its name from two ships of exploration named Discovery — HMS Discovery, a ship that accompanied explorer James Cook on his third and final major voyage and Henry Hudson's ship Discovery which he used 1610–1611 to search for a Northwest Passage. The shuttle shares a name with Discovery, the spaceship from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Discovery was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope. The second and third Hubble Space Telescope service mission was also conducted by Discovery. It has also launched the Ulysses probe and three TDRS satellites. Discovery is chosen twice as the return to flight orbiter, first as the return to flight orbiter after the Challenger Disaster in 1986, and as the orbiter for the return to flight mission in July 2005, after Columbia Disaster. Discovery also carried Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who was 77 at the time, back into space during STS-95 on October 29, 1998, making him the oldest human being to venture into space. At 10:39am on July 26, 2005, Discovery successfully launched into space, marking the first shuttle mission since the February 2003 Columbia Disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Discovery

[walkon]

1. At the DOD

Are we still using 1984 vintage equipment?

[Deep13]

2. Guess so.

Yah know it costs half a billion dollars every time that thing takes off?