AFTER 38 successful missions, Nasa’s oldest space shuttle Discovery ascended towards space for the last time on Thursday. On its final mission STS-133, it carries six astronauts, brand new modules and lots of supplies to the orbiting space laboratory: International Space Station (ISS).
During the 11-day mission Discovery will dock into the ISS and remain there for around eight days while the crew transfer equipment and affix the new module. The STS-133 mission is delivering the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), a facility created from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module named Leonardo.
The crew, led by commander Steven Lindsey will also carry out two spacewalks in this time as part of the attempt to furnish the space station with new technology, special cameras and more cargo. Along with these refurbishments, Discovery is also carrying the first humanoid robonaut (robot-astronaut) called R2. The robot will remain packed for months and will be launched after a few months inside the space station.
It will be initially operated inside the laboratory for operational testing, but over time, both its territory and its applications could expand. There are no plans to return R2 to the earth.
On the tenth flight day Discovery will undock from the space station carrying all of the human-astronauts.
Before it starts to descend to the earth, it will perform a victory lap around the space station called the “fly-around”. This will enable the shuttle crew to take detailed photographs of the external structure of the station.