@Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, VA
August 2018
Entering service in 1984, Discovery was the third Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle to fly in space. Discovery flew 39 missions, spent a total of 365 days in space, and traveled almost 150 million miles–more than the other orbiters. The 14 forward RCS engines (along with a set located aft) provide the thrust for attitude (rotational) maneuvers (pitch, yaw and roll) and for small velocity changes along the orbiter axis (translation maneuvers). The 870 lb thrust RCS engines are capable of thrusting from one to 150 seconds, with a maximum of 300 seconds. The smaller vernier engines (24 lbs thrust) are used for finite maneuvers and station-keeping and are capable of 330,000 starts and 125,000 seconds of cumulative firings. Discovery is preserved as intact as possible as it last flew in 2011 on the 133rd Space Shuttle mission. NASA transferred Discovery to the Smithsonian in April 2012 after a delivery flight over the nation’s capital. Fuji X-E2s w/18-55mm.
