Hubble Space Telescope by the time it was due to be observed. Engineering support for HST is provided by NASA and contractor personnel at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, south of the STScI. Hubble's operation is monitored 24 hours per day by four teams of flight controllers who make up Hubble's Flight Operations Team. By early 1986, the planned launch date of October that year looked feasible, but the "Challenger" accident brought the U.S. space program to a halt, grounding the Space Shuttle fleet and forcing the launch of Hubble to be postponed for several years. The telescope had to
Space Shuttle Discovery alone. "Discovery" flew all three "return to flight" missions after the "Challenger" and "Columbia" disasters: STS-26 in 1988, STS-114 in 2005, and STS-121 in 2006. "Discovery" flew the ante-penultimate mission of the Space Shuttle program, STS-133, having launched on February 24, 2011. "Endeavour" flew STS-134 and "Atlantis" performed STS-135, NASA's last Space Shuttle mission. On February 24, 2011, Space Shuttle "Discovery" launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-A to begin its final orbital flight. The Flow Director was responsible for the overall preparation of the shuttle for launch and processing it after landing, and remained permanently assigned to head