The Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on its first mission (41-D), to deploy three communications satellites on this date in 1984. Since that inaugural flight, Discovery flew 149 million miles during 39 missions and completed 5,830 orbits of the earth, during 365 days in space spanning a 27-year career. Discovery flew more flights than any other orbiter. In 1990 Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into space, and provided both the second and third Hubble servicing missions in 1997 and 1999. Discovery was the first orbiter to undergo Orbiter Major Modification (OMM) at the Kennedy Space Center. Discovery made its final touchdown at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, 2011.
~Florida Historical Society
