Space shuttle runway pocked with historical markers

For years, the massive runway at Kennedy Space Center was where the space shuttle fleet landed after they completed their missions into space. Black granite plaques are now present on the runway that mark the spots where the shuttles stopped on their last missions. The plaque in the photo below is for the Discovery mission STS-133.

The granite plaques give details about when the final landing was made, how far the special traveled down the runway on its final mission, the number of missions flown, the number of days in space, and the number of miles flown. It's interesting to see that space shuttle Discovery traveled 148,000,000 miles.

There also plaques embedded in the runway showing the final stopping points of other space shuttles, including the Endeavour, currently on its way to the California Science Institute. In all their three commemorative plaques along the edge of the Shuttle Landing Facility marking where each shuttle's last landing was.

Endeavour's plaque marks STS-134 as its final mission with the landing on June 1, 2011 with the shuttle having flown a total of 123,000,000 miles and spent 299 days in space during 25 separate missions. The third plaque is for space shuttle Atlantis STS-135 making its final landing July 21, 2011. Atlantis spent 307 days in space covering 126,000,000 miles during 33 missions flown.

[via Florida Today]