Discovery, the third orbiter to become operational at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), was named after one of two ships that were used by the British explorer James Cook in the 1770's during voyages in the South Pacific that led to the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. Another of his ships was the Endeavour, the name of NASA's newest orbiter. Cook also used Discovery to explore the coasts of southern Alaska and Northwestern Canada.
Other famous ships have carried the name Discovery, including the one used by Henry Hudson to explore Hudson Bay in Canada and searched for what was hoped to be the Northwest passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in 1610, and 1611. Another, was used by the British Royal Geographical Society for an expedition to the North Pole in 1875. This organization then built another ship named Discovery in 1901 to conduct its Antarctic expedition that ended in 1904. The ship still exists and is being preserved by the Society.
Discovery did benefited from lessons learned during the construction and testing of Enterprise, Columbia, and Challenger. At roll-out, its weight was about 6,870lbs. less than that of Columbia. Two orbiters, Challenger and Discovery, were modified at KSC to enable them to carry the Centaur upper stage in the payload bay. These modifications included extra plumbing to load and vent Centaur's cryogenic (L02/LH2) propellants (other IUS/PAM upper stages use solid propellants), and controls on the aft flight deck for loading and monitoring the Centaur stage. No Centaur flight was ever flown after the loss of Challenger in 1986. It was decided that the risk was too high to launch a Shuttle with a fueled Centaur upper stage in the payload bay.
As present (08/15/1996) Discovery is undergoing a nine-month long Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) in Palmdale California. The craft will be fitted with a fifth set of cryogenic tanks and an external airlock to support missions to the International Space Station. Discovery should have been delivered to KSC on 6/28/96 but is still facing delays.
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Last Updated by TeamQuest '96 c/o hotshots@ix.netcom.com on August 15th 1996 at 20:59:59 PDT