Discovery Shuttle - Retirement journey to DC
Following the last flight of Discovery to her new home at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum April 2012
- "April 14, 2012 — Space shuttle Discovery hit the road early Saturday (April 14) to board its jumbo jet ride to the Smithsonian.
Leaving the Kennedy Space Center's 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building at 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), Discovery was destined for a steel gantry but not a launch pad. Rolled out before dawn, the retired spacecraft was instead headed for where it last landed from space more than a year ago.Discovery's final flight plan will take it to Washington D.C. to go on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. If the weather cooperates, the air- and space-craft combo will depart Florida at just after dawn on Tuesday (April 17), touching down later that same morning at Dulles International Airport."
Quoted from: http://www.collectspace.com - Nice animation here from the Washington Post -
Discovery space shuttle's last trek - The Washington PostAfter a year of decommissioning, NASA's space shuttle Discovery will make her final flight, to Dulles International Airport - site of the...
Spaceflight Now | STS-133 Shuttle Report | Discovery rolls to the runway for retirement rideDiscovery rolls to the runway for retirement ride BY JUSTIN RAYSPACEFLIGHT NOWPosted: April 14, 2012 In the predawn darkness Saturday, th...
Discovery pulls into the hoist that will lift it atop its 747 carrier aircraft #OV103 http://pic.twitter.com/feBVjyAd
@NASAKennedy Sporting some slick shades instead of those terrible sleep-mask covers, too! Phew! #OV103
It's quieted down out here. Sling being lowered to the Orbiter and prep for hydraulics to raise the landing gear #OV103 http://pic.twitter.com/JpEFV2U5- Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility - Discovery will be hoisted off the ground by the Mate-Demate Device (MDD). The gantry-like metal structure was designed to load orbiters onto the back of NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747 used to ferry the winged spacecraft around the USA This will take most of the day.
#OV103 preparing to be lifted at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility. http://pic.twitter.com/5NHs4y9OA few posts to give you some background to this final "flight"
Discovery's last flight sends it to SmithsonianThe workhorse of the space shuttle fleet gets a prime location at the museum.
Spaceflight Now | Shuttle Report | A photo tour of the Shuttle Carrier AircraftLong-time Shuttle Carrier Aircraft flight engineer, a NASA veteran since the late 1970s, Henry Taylor, gives a tour of the modified Boein...
I'm equal parts #avgeek and #spacegeek, and I'd love to get in the left seat of this and push the throttle levers up! http://pic.twitter.com/1BmmE9sg
Now boarding: Inside NASA's Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft | collectSPACESpace shuttle Discovery's ride to retirement, NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, has come a long way since taking to th...
Space shuttle Discovery returns to runway for ride to Smithsonian | collectSPACEThe space shuttle Discovery hit the road to board its jumbo jet ride to the Smithsonian. Rolled out before sunrise, the retired winged sp...
