Those of us who followed space missions kind of grew up with the space shuttle program and with the legendary Discovery space shuttle.
Today they retired the shuttle after her final landing. 30 years of service, 39 flights. That is an amazing feat.
To honor Discovery and space missions, please post your favorite picture, article, video .. anything related to space.
Restored attachments:
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Yessir great thread! Everything to do with Aerospace is amazing and Discovery is part of the modern age and will be remembered in history. Its the longest serving space shuttle and that’s a mean feat.
I would like to show collective gratitude to those involved in the Aerospace industry at some point or another 
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
awesome pics GIDSA.
I agree with you. Those who put together Discovery and those who sent even the first rocket to space were just amazing humans.
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
A video of the shuttle completing its final mission:
byebye discovery behna, you’ve been good 
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Indeed brother. You’re welcome 
Not that I was involved with the Discovery. I was however involved in the A380 project 
Also, those photos are from the last launch :hinna:
/namedropping
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
An sad day too…
Oh well the Discovery was an amazing craft and should be preserved for future generations. Hope they dont break her up… she deserves to be honoured.
30 years of service is a very good innings… most conventional aircraft and especially millitary aircraft cannot hope to last that long…
A salute to the brilliant marvel of modern Engineering that is the aptly named Discover space shuttle. 
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Most conventional aircraft and especially millitary aircraft cannot hope to last that long...
That is untrue. There are plenty of old aircraft in service today :)
The mean feat by Discovery is being a space shuttle and lasting 30 years but ofcourse NASA has incredible maintenance/upgrade capability.
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Okay then obviously you know more on the matter than I do… but 30years that is a dang long time man! I am almost 30! 
Just think most cars we drive dont last that long! Okay I know theres that 72 Chevy 350 v8 round the back… but thats still damn rare!
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
It is a long time but advances in maintenance and regular updates can keep some babies flying for a long time! A couple of my favourite machines even though there are plenty more long serving aircraft.
About cars, I have some amazing photos of some beautifully maintained classics but another day and another thread :)
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Hey the Concorde lasted a pretty long time too (since the 1970s I believe?), it was pretty sad when they grounded it, hated the fact they had a perfectly good one standing on the Heathrow tarmac rotting away. Who knows when we'll get the next supersonic commercial jet?
And yes all good things must come to an end, Discovery is the end of an era. Here's hoping to better, more capable space shuttles in the future that can make hyperspace jumps :D
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
The Americans killed the Concorde 
****ing complaining about noise! Its a supersonic aircraft Goddamnit! They were just jealous Europe did it before them 
I used to die a little inside every time I saw that beauty at Heathrow. I did get a chance to have a poke around the bird 'eh probably small scale special purpose but I doubt we’ll see a concorde category aircraft soon :hinna:
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
I remember the Pepsi Concorde coming to Jeddah when I was a kid, good times. The Concorde was an iconic aircraft, one of its kind. When I first visited the Iron Bridge back in 1998, in their little museum they had a framed picture taken in 1978 from underneath the bridge with the Concorde flying over it in the background. Captured the progress of mankind from the world's first iron bridge to a supersonic airliner in one snap. Amazing.
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Dad & Mom watched live the very first flight of discovery in summer 1984, somewhere in Florida... 30 years dozens of missions.. .amazing feat.
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Since my childhood flying once in Concorde was my things to do before i die.. but then they cancelled it.
Europe didn’t do it first, American have the tech long before them, but because of safety concerns regulators never gave go-ahead for supersonic commercial plane.
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
I have a poster of that scene 
Amazing indeed!
The Europeans did do it first. They launched the first supersonic commercial aircraft. You can rant all you want about safety concerns and what not, that didn’t matter, the Concorde’s safety record was better then other aircraft used. The reason the Concorde failed was the freakin’ hippies, economics and well people being idiots about this marvel of engineering. I might be a wee bit more qualified in this aspect
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
stop showing off gidsa 
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
I was talking about the being an idiot part On a level though I’m just ‘Edumacating The Masses, Since 1984’
I also noticed your post count goes down with time 
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
riiiiiiiiiiiiiight ;) ;)
dude blame that on TLK...he killed 23 of my posts with a "whoosh". gots to get my 45K mark back. hence the random postings.
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
Oh twadi!
And here I thought you actually meant to interact with me. I was having a good day you know, until you had to drop your truth bombs! :hinna:
Re: Bye Bye Discovery
i would ask you about the truth bombs but i'm afraid that you're just going to start a lecture on the aerodynamics of bomb-manufacturing or something =/
