The history of the NASA Space Shuttle in pictures

Discovery, NASA's oldest and most journeyed space shuttle, launches its final mission to the International Space Station, wrapping up a near three-decade legacy of orbital travel. Discovery has flown more missions than any other shuttle, circling the Earth more than 5,600 times and logging 142 million miles (230 million kilometres) over its 352 days in space. Final flights for the other two shuttles remaining in the US fleet, Atlantis and Endeavour, are scheduled for later this year. There were initially five space shuttles in the fleet - Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986 and Columbia disintegrated on its way back to Earth in 2003. The sixth shuttle, Enterprise, did test flights in the atmosphere but was never flown into space.