30 years ago this week an American space icon lifted into a clear Florida morning on its inaugural flight.
Delayed from its intended June 1984 launch by technical and weather issues; The Space Shuttle Discovery, named for a number of exploratory ships including one used by Captain Cook to explore the Pacific, did not enjoy an easy birth, enduring three postponements; one featuring the first ever on pad abort before finally flaming its way into orbit from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on 30 August 1984.
Flight 41-D, NASA’s 12th shuttle flight would be the first of 39 launches, 365 days on orbit and 5830 orbits of the earth for what would become NASA’s longest serving shuttle orbiter.
The storied career of NASA’s third Space Shuttle orbiter would feature many milestones and notable firsts: The first Defence Department mission, the launching of NASA’s great observatories; the Hubble Space Telescope, the Ulysses Solar Explorer and the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.
In 1998 Discovery returned John Glenn to obit before racing the Y2K bug to repair Hubble on the final spaceflight of the 20th century during Christmas 1999.
Appropriately, Discovery would fly the 100th Space Shuttle mission, STS 92, a Space Station assembly mission delivering the Z1 truss in October 2000.
Discovery would, on three occasions, serve as a beacon of promise for NASA, leading the shuttle fleet back into space on three return to flight missions following loss of sister orbiters Challenger and Columbia.
Discovery holds a place in Australian space history, launching Australia’s first domestic communications satellite, Aussat 1 on STS 51-I in August 1985. Ten years later, Discovery would return Australian astronaut Andy Thomas following his stay on Space Station MIR closing out the Shuttle-Mir program.
27 years after STS 41D; I watched nervously with friends in Houston as Discovery soared aloft for the 39th and final time on STS 133, her 13th mission in support of the International Space Station. As with her first launch, her last would remind us all of the precision and technical complexity that was such a defining feature of any shuttle launch, launching into a late afternoon sky with just seconds remaining in its launch window due to a range safety issue.
12 days and 19 hours later, I, along with hundreds of others; stood beside the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) viewing site at Kennedy Space Center; hoping to witness a moment in space history. Strong winds, barely at the limits for shuttle operations, made a landing unlikely. With only moments to spare before landing would have to be delayed one day, Mission control cleared Discovery to come home.
Over the east coast of Australia, Discovery fired her engines one final time. The De-Orbit burn brought her out of orbit, falling toward a landing half a world away at the Kennedy Space Center.
For the final time, Discovery slipped from the familiar black of space to the extreme heat of re entry.
Across the Space Coast, eyes were turned skyward, as a double sonic boom announced Discovery’s arrival.
Discovery was making her final curtain call in conditions not dissimilar to those as she rose from Pad 39A almost three decades before.
In a moment she evolved from a fast moving white speck to the fine lines of a Space Shuttle orbiter with contrails shedding of her wings, small puffs emitting from her Reaction Control System (RCS) engines as she made one final overhead turn before her main gear touched runway 1-5; the North West to South East landing approach of the SLF.
The workhorse of the shuttle fleet was bringing the last of her 252 astronauts safely back to Earth.
As her nose gear touched down and her drag chute deployed to slow her post landing roll out, those of us alongside the SLF erupted in applause and cheering… elation for a successful mission.
Then, wheels-stop. After 146 million miles, Discovery was still, she would never again move under her own power. Our applause subsided as a stark realisation came upon us.
There would be no next flight for Discovery. In a moment; she had transitioned from a flightworthy orbiter to a part of history. She would be unique for all time. Her record of achievement and service to the space program never to be surpassed.
Silence tinged with tears of sadness set in amongst us all sharing this moment at the SLF as we felt the full impact of the events that we had witnessed.
As crew worked to safe the vehicle, one of the ground team sprayed blue lines either side of the main or nose landing gear. Discovery’s final wheel stop position has been preserved for all time, the site now marked by a bronze plaque on the edge of the runway.
In the late afternoon sun, Discovery, surrounded by those who loved and cared for her was towed from the runway; the curtain finally coming down on her long career as she disappeared into the Orbiter Processing Facility.
NASA’s great lady, Discovery, had left the stage.
After a 12 month transition to retirement, Discovery left KSC for the final time in April 2012. Fittingly, her arrival in the national capital was an encore befitting a true national icon. Riding atop NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the Jumbo jet known as NASA 905; she completed a flyover of The Washington Mall, the White House and the Capitol before landing at Dulles Airport.
Three years later after STS 133, Discovery, her systems inert, her computer displays darkened and her engines forever silent; rests in a place of honour as a national treasure, the centrepiece of the James S McDonnell Space Hangar at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F Udvar Hazy Center in Chantilly VA.
She is displayed a I last saw her on the SLF, in landing configuration, with her landing gear down and locked – Mission accomplished.
30 years after her first launch, Discovery has a new mission. Continuing to inspire the nation and serving as an inspiration for those who dream of conquering the frontiers of space, educating the next generation of space engineers and explorers, and serving as a powerful symbol of what can be accomplished, with human intellect and ingenuity, courage and conviction.
From a personal perspective, the landing of STS 133 was a unique and deeply personal experience. In my travels, I was been fortunate to see three shuttles in operation. Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour. All were special, but the landing of STS 133 was a unique moment, one so powerful that it, along with other events on my 2011 tour, inspired me to redefine my direction as a Historian, an Educator and media commentator.
My abiding memory of Discovery is off seeing her on the runway, standing on her own gear, with her own proud wings holding her up.
“On the shoulders of the Space Shuttle, America will continue the dream”
To my Space Shuttle:
Happy Anniversary Discovery!!!