Space Shuttle Discovery launches while the Space Shuttle Columbia is readied for a future mission. Space shuttles are launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At this date there are four operating space shuttles: Atlantis, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavour. This mission is most famous for carrying the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. The Hubble Space Telescope is the largest public optical telescope ever to operate in orbit, and because it is above Earth's atmosphere it's photographs are more clear than any ground based telescope. Hubble continues to make fundamental discoveries about planets, stars, galaxies, comets, QSOs, and the universe we live in.