On Sunday, November 29, 2015, I ran the Space Coast Half Marathon in Cocoa Village, Florida for the third time in as many years. This was my third of five years running this race for the Big Bang Series. The Big Bang Series, is a five year plan, in which they will offer a finisher medal of one of the space shuttles each year, with a three year Milky Way Challenge medal, and a five year Intergalactic Challenge medal if you complete all five years.
The previous two year medals were for Space Shuttles Columbia & Challenger.
![]() Columbia |
![]() Challenger |
This year, the medal recognized the Space Shuttle Discovery. Discovery was NASA’s third shuttle orbiter to launch in August 30, 1984. It flew 39 missions, and is best known for carrying the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit on STS-31 in April 1990. Discovery made 5,830 Earth Orbits, 148 million miles, and spent a total of 365 days in space (1 year).