Discovery on March 11, 2009. Click for larger. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalis.

Unless things politically change and there is no reason to believe they will.  The shuttle Discovery will be making its last trip to space on Tuesday. This is a little bit of a delay from the original schedule.  Right now the launch is scheduled for November 2nd (Tuesday) at 16:17 EDT (that’s 4:17 pm EDT).

There are a few issues namely helium and nitrogen leaks in the right hand Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod before launch, but the delay should enable the problems to be fixed.

Here are some of the interesting statistics from a very nice retrospective on the NASA site — Discovery:

• Took four years to build
• Has been to space 38 times
• Was the first spacecraft to retrieve and return a satellite to Earth
• Has carried 246 crew members, more than any other space vehicle
• Has spent 352 days in orbit
• Has circled the Earth 5,623 times
• And traveled 143 million miles.

Get wallpaper sized versions of the image at the top of the post at NASA.