Scott County has a Space Tree?

Details of Scott County’s Space Tree have been kept under wraps for many years in an effort to keep this national treasure safe, healthy and beautiful.  The information I am sharing with you has been pieced together from numerous conversations and is as accurate as we can derive from the information shared to date.  For the safety and overall health of the Scott County Space Tree, the identity of the type of tree for our purposes and its location, for the time being, will be kept a secret at the request of the Government. 

There were two space shuttle flights we have narrowed this trees germination down to in space:

Space Shuttle Discovery – August 30 through September 5, 1984

Discovery is one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. Like other shuttles, the shuttle has three main components: the Space Shuttle orbiter, a central fuel tank, and two rocket boosters. Nearly 25,000 heat-resistant tiles cover the orbiter to protect it from high temperatures on re-entry. 

Discovery became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by Columbia and Challenger.  It embarked on its last mission, STS-133, on February 24, 2011 and touched down for the final time at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, having spent a cumulative total of almost a full year in space. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, and also carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

While the shuttle mission log below reads as a mission dedicated to the Department of Defense numerous other scientific experiments and activities such as the germination of the Shuttle trees were conducted.  

Mission Log Notes:  First Discovery Mission:  Judith Resnik became the second American woman in space.  Three communication satellites were placed in orbit including LEASAT F2.
Length of Journey: 6 days, 00 hours, 56 minutes, 04 seconds.
Distance traveled:  unavailable

Space Shuttle Atlantis – December 2-6, 1988

Atlantis is a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Constructed by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985, Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J from 3 to 7 October 1985.

Atlantis embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on 8 July 2011. STS-134 by Endeavour was expected to be the final flight before STS-135 was authorized in October 2010. STS-135 took advantage of the processing for the STS-335 Launch on Need mission that would have been necessary if STS-134's crew became stranded in orbit. Atlantis landed for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center on 21 July 2011.

By the end of its final mission, Atlantis had orbited the Earth a total of 4,848 times, traveling nearly 126,000,000 mi (203,000,000 km) or more than 525 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

While the shuttle mission log below reads as a mission dedicated to the Department of Defense numerous other scientific experiments and activities such as the germination of the Shuttle trees were conducted.  

Mission Log Notes:  Mission dedicated to Department of Defense. Deployed the Lacrosse 1 satellite, for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Atlantis' Thermal Protection System tiles sustained unusually severe damage during the flight; over 700 damaged tiles were noted, and one tile was missing.

Length of Journey: 4 days, 1 hour, 44 minutes, 38 seconds
Distance traveled: 1,682,641 miles  (2,707,948 km)

That makes our Scott County Space Tree between 31 and 36 years of age.  Before we go any further, the identity of the tree and its location are verified, and the tree is still alive and growing stronger in the fertile soil in Scott County.  As further details are discovered or permitted, they will be released but as for now, the tree and its location are one of the best kept secrets of Scott County history!