Launching more times than any other space vehicle in history (a distinction she will hold for decades to come since no spaceship currently under construction, design, or research and development is slated to fly more than 10 times), Discovery’s 38 – soon to be 39 – missions place her firmly and unquestionably as the workhorse for the manned space community.
Later that year, Discovery flew the STS-64 mission, a flight that marked the first use of the Lidar In-space Technology Experiment and the first untethered US spacewalk in 10 years.STS-64 also saw astronauts test a new SAFER device for EVA use. SAFERs are now a mandatory part of all EVAs (spacewalks) conducted by NASA.
Discovery returned several long-term US experiments from MIR via the SPACEBAN single module during STS-91. Among further note for STS-91 is the flight of the prototype Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) – a payload via AMS-2 that will be permanently attached to the International Space Station in 2011.
And for those of you wondering, actual writing of this article only took me 5 hours (but that spread out over a few days due to illness).
I created a Digg account just to submit this awesome article:http://digg.com/news/technology/after_26_years_workhorse_discovery_stands_ready_for_final_mission_nasaspaceflight_com
Thank you all for the kind words. It was an amazing journey to chronicle Discovery's history like. And for those of you wondering, actual writing of this article only took me 5 hours (but that spread out over a few days due to illness). Again, thank you all for the kind words. And good speed Discovery!