STS-114 marked the return to flight of the Space Shuttle after the Columbia disaster and was the second Shuttle flight with a female commander (Eileen Collins, who also commanded the STS-93 mission). The STS-114 mission was initially to be flown aboard the orbiter Atlantis, but NASA replaced it with Discovery after improperly installed gear was found in Atlantis' Rudder Speed Brake system. During OMM for Discovery, an actuator on the RSB system was found to be installed incorrectly. This created a fleet wide suspect condition. The Rudder Speed Brake system was removed and reburbished on all three remaining orbiter vehicles and since Discovery's RSB was corrected first, it became the Return to Flight vehicle over Atlantis. Seventeen years prior, Discovery had flown NASA's previous Return to Flight mission, STS-26.
The most noticable difference with this patch is the thicker border. There is also a black thread outline where the flame trail passes over the blue border.
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