Shuttle Discovery - A Journey Unlike Any Other - as part of the news and politics series by GeoBeats.
The final sentimental journey of the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 17th, 2012 captured headlines all over the world. That attention was well deserved considering Discovery's contribution to the space efforts for more than 27 years. The world's most traveled space shuttle flew nearly 150 million miles on 39 missions.
Discovery is the space shuttle that took Hubble Space Telescope into the orbit and was also the first orbiter shuttle to dock with the International Space Station.
It even made an appearance in the movie - Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The mechanics of a space shuttle and its missions are mind-numbingly complex and expensive. It can cost over $1.5 billion to build a space shuttle and according to NASA, each mission costs about $450 million. And it has to travel at 17,500 miles per hour in order to remain in orbit. There's about half a million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen in its external fuel tank. That fuel tank gets burned in the atmosphere, other parts of the space shuttle are reused. Total weight can be millions of pounds.
By the way, can you guess the estimated cost of preparing and transporting Discovery from Florida to Washington, DC for its final voyage? Answer about $11 million.
