Space Shuttle Discovery waits for its final mission

LONDON - Its 39th and the last journey to the launch pad followed the same pattern as any of its past 38 flights. Space Shuttle Discovery was towed the 3.5 miles to Cape Canaveral on Monday night amid bittersweet, almost sombre, environs.

The sturdy workhorse of Nasa’s fleet, this will be Discovery’s final mission before it becomes a museum piece, reports the Daily Mail.

Lit up against the night sky, the shuttle was watched by throngs of shuttle workers and their families as it took its last ride to the pad atop a giant transporter.

In 38 flights, Discovery has completed 5,247 orbits, spending 322 days in orbit. It has also flown more flights than any of the other shuttles, including four in 1985.

It was also the shuttle which was the first to fly after the 1986 Challenger disaster and 2003 Columbia disaster.

Several hundred contractual employees will lose their jobs on Oct 1 in a continuing wave of layoffs after the shuttle programme was shelved by the Obama administration.

Nasa has only two missions remaining with Discovery due to lift off for the International Space Station on Nov 1.

Endeavour will follow in February to wrap up 30 years of shuttle flight. The future of manned spaceflight is uncertain because of disagreement in Washington over where future missions should fly.

Technicians are readying the payload for space shuttle Discovery’s next mission, STS-133.

The flight to the International Space Station is due to deliver supplies and equipment to the orbiting lab complex inside the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM).

The module will be left behind so that it can be used for microgravity experiments in fluid physics, materials science, biology and biotechnology.