Discovery the Last Journey

I read on news today as the most traveled space shuttle DISCOVERY will make its final destination for

this era.It thundered into the orbit for the final time heading to the International Space Station.

After its return its will be heading to the museum for its 39th journey and 133th shuttles missinon overall.

Discovery is the oldest of NASA's three surviving space shuttles and first to be decommissioned this year.

Discovery already has 143 million miles to its credit, beginning with its first flight in 1984. By the time this mission ends, the shuttle will have tacked on another 4.5 million miles. And it will have spent 363 days in space and circled Earth 5,800 times when it returns March 7.

No other spacecraft has been launched so many times.Its also shuttled 180 people into space including the first female shuttle commander and the first African-American spacewalker.

Discovery's list of achievements include delivering the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit, carrying the first Russian cosmonaut to launch on a US spaceship, performing the first rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir with the first female shuttle pilot in the cockpit, returning Mercury astronaut John Glenn to orbit, and bringing shuttle flights back to life after the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

Discovery is expected to be eventually put on display by the Smithsonian Institution. The other two shuttles are scheduled for their final flights later this year: Endeavour on April 19 and Atlantis on June 28.

Discovery has broken new ground multiple times since it first launched in 1984. It transported the Hubble Space telescope, was the first to rendezvous with the Russian Mir Space Station, and delivered part of the Japanese Kibo lab to the ISS.The shuttle was also the first to return to space after two major disasters: the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the Columbia disaster in 2003, when the shuttle broke up on its return toward Earth.