The third of the US space shuttles. It made its first flight on 30 August 1984 with a crew of six. Discovery took the second resident crew to the International Space Station in 2001. On 26 July 2005 it made the first flight following the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster, taking cargo and equipment to the International Space Station. Prior to this, Discovery had made 30 flights.

In 1994 Sergei Krikalev of Russia became the first cosmonaut in a space shuttle on board Discovery, and John Glenn flew in it in 1998, becoming the oldest man in space.