The following are snapshots of Nasa’s Space Shuttle Discovery, which recently completed a successful 13-day cargo run and construction mission at the International Space Station (ISS). This was its 39th and final spaceflight mission in a 27-year flying career. The shuttle touched down at its Kennedy Space Center home base in Florida at 11.57EST, with commander Steven Lindsey at the controls.
Overall, Discovery accumulated 365 days in orbit over the 39 missions carried out and will now be prepared for display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The decision by the United States to end the 30-year-old shuttle program is due to the high costs associated with operating the program and a bid by the government to free up funds so as to begin work on new spaceship’s that can travel as far as the moon, asteroids and other destinations that are beyond the station’s orbit.
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ray
March 10, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Great pics! Not sure how quickly the funding will come for a new spacecraft though…
silpada
March 11, 2011 at 3:16 am
This is great work of US scientist and because of these research US is unique all over the wrld
Wholesale Cosmetics
March 11, 2011 at 6:17 am
Wonderful photography, i am so amused by these images. These snaps ate the clear evidence of their huge efforts, US scientists are doing a great job.
Maggie
March 14, 2011 at 9:04 pm
It’s sentimental and disheartening to look at these images, considering the past thirty years of its life. It’s kind of an end of an era, and a little sad that there isn’t enough money to continue what was once such a ground-breaking and inspiration to the American public. They say that we’ll continue on missions by piggy backing with other nations who still have programs afloat, but with discontinuing it how do you think it will effect our economy?
Odurinde
March 18, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Thanks for sharing this picture, it is very interesting.
Admin
March 27, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for the comments guys.