On This Day in 1984: Discovery Heads into Space for the Very First Time...

NASA

It was 40 years ago this morning that the third orbiter in NASA's space shuttle fleet, Discovery, launched for the very first time on mission STS-41-D from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. STS-41-D was on orbit for up to seven days—placing three communications satellites in low-Earth orbit before deploying an experimental solar array that would be a precursor to the large solar wings used by the International Space Station (ISS) today.

And it was 15 years ago back in February that I visited KSC to personally see Discovery poised for flight at Launch Complex 39A! Discovery embarked on her tenth ISS-bound mission, STS-119, on March 15, 2009...a little over a month after my very first trip to Cape Canaveral.