@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. Each Space Shuttle carried three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 Space Shuttle main engines (SSME), each generating 418,000 lbs of thrust at liftoff. Following each flight, the engines were removed from the orbiter, inspected, and refurbished for reuse on another mission. Aerojet Rocketdyne developed nine Replica Shuttle Main Engines (RSME) for installation on the retired vehicles for museum display purposes, retaining the SSMEs for flight duty on the Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle. 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.
