Shuttle Discovery – Rode Hard

On another site, someone posted a picture of the space shuttle Discovery and noted that it didn’t exactly look showroom clean:

The blogger questioned who would want to ride this thing since it looked like it was, “Rode hard and put up dirty.”
I say, hell yeah I’d go. You know why? Because she brought everyone back. She might have a few miles on her, but she proved she could handle herself just fine.

I’m tempted to say that Discovery is a hero, if any machine can now be called that. Putting Hubble in orbit, flying more missions than any other spacecraft, being the first back to flight after two of her sisters were lost, and so much more. Some wouldn’t hesitate to say that was heroic. I say that she was just doing her job and did it well. Anything more is just more.

Photo credit: NASA