Most re-used spacecraft

The most re-used spacecraft is the Space Shuttle Discovery (USA), which carried out 39 space flights between 30 August 1984 and 9 March 2011.

The first mission of Discovery was STS-41D (30 August–5 September 1984). This mission had been delayed for two months owing to unexpected technical issues with the orbiter. On this flight, Discovery carried a payload of scientific experiments as well as three communications satellites. The final mission of Discovery was STS-133 (24 February–9 March 2011), which carried the European Leonardo module, and several other components, to the International Space Station.

Discovery (official designation OV-103) was the third of the five operational orbiters built. Its two predecessors – Challenger (OV-099) and Columbia (OV-102) – were destroyed in accidents in 1986 and 2003, respectively. The second most flown Space Shuttle was Atlantis (OV-104), which flew 33 times between 3 October 1985 and 8 July 2011 (STS-135, the last mission of the Space Shuttle program).

The most missions flown by Discovery (or any Space Shuttle) in a single year is four, flown between 12 April and 27 August 1985. Over the course of its 26-year career, Discovery made many groundbreaking flights, becoming the first Space Shuttle to dock with the Russian Mir space station, launching the Hubble space telescope, and installing several modules of the International Space Station.

Discovery was formally decommissioned in March 2011, and transferred to the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and placed on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center located just outside Washington DC, in Chantilly, Viriginia, USA.