Space shuttle Discovery makes final voyage
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a space shuttle on top of a plane, as Discovery marks its final journey with a fly-by over Washington DC.
After almost three decades in service and 39 orbital flights, America’s oldest space shuttle has made its final flight. Piggybacking on top of a specially modified 747 carrier jet, Discovery took off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida early this morning, cheered on by thousands of well-wishers. Among the crowds lining the runway were former shuttle workers, journalists, and the six crew who flew Discovery’s final space mission a year ago.
The 83-ton shuttle was taken on an 800-mile trip to the museum which will now be its home, the Steven F Udvar-Hazy centre in Dulles airport, just outside Washington DC. On its way, the shuttle spent more than an hour flying low over the capital’s national monuments, as more crowds waved and cheered below. Thousands of people crammed into the National Mall to catch a glimpse, as the spaceship took a couple of spins overhead, perched atop its jet.
Steven Lindsey, the last astronaunt in command, said he was glad it was going to a good home. “Hopefully millions of people for many, many years to come will go see Discovery.” The shuttle is certain to be a huge attraction at the Smithsonian, where it will replace the prototype shuttle, Enterprise, which will, in turn, be sent on to New York City.
For Discovery is not just the leader of Nasa’s fleet. It had the first female shuttle pilot, became the first US spaceship to carry a Russian cosmonaut, was the first to vist the Russian space station Mir, as well as the last, and restarted the shuttle programme after both Challenger and Columbia exploded.
Nasa ended its shuttle programme last summer, in favour of further-flung exploration: the gap will now be filled by private companies, with the first commercial cargo run due to start within weeks.
And happily, it seems, the Smithsonian is getting the space shuttle for free. According to the Washington Post, trying to transfer the $11m delivery charge between different government agencies proved too tricky, so Nasa “waived the charges”. And bagged itself a piece of history, too.
