Space Shuttle Astronaut Crew Boards Discovery STS-133

NASA's Closeout Crew helped the astronauts with final suit preps, boarding the orbiter and securing them in their seats.

This mission marks the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Having been the most active space shuttle in the fleet, Discovery now flys the entire space shuttle fleet into retirement. Space Shuttle Discovery has the distinction of being the only space shuttle to serve in both return to flight programs, once after Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L exploded on January 28, 1986 and again after the tragic break up of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 during re-entry.

A bittersweet moment for NASA's oldest active shuttle in the orbiter fleet, Discovery launched the Hubble telescope into orbit and in a later mission, serviced it to fix a faulty mirror, began construction on the International Space Station, and performed countless valuable experiments in space.

Space shuttle Discovery was successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:53 p.m. EST Thursday, February 24, 2011 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with Commander Steve Lindsey leading the STS-133 crew to deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module and Robonaut 2 to the space station.