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The Final Flight: Space Shuttle Discovery And SCA Pay Tribute With Flyby Of The KSC SLF

453 views · Published 18 April 2012 · 8:32 · Indexed 28 September 2026

Channel: Matthew Travis · 2012 · Science & Technology

Space shuttle Discovery departed NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time with an early-morning takeoff atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). Instead of blazing a trail toward low Earth orbit, the agency's most-flown shuttle is on its way to Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

The SCA transporting Discovery took off from Kennedy at 7 a.m. EDT, just as the first light dawned at the Shuttle Landing Facility. The ferry flight concluded at 11:05 a.m. when the aircraft touched down at Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Va.

Before the departure from Kennedy, invited guests, members of the media and NASA officials were joined at the runway by members of Discovery's first and last astronaut crews for an emotional send-off.

"This is the place where people have really taken care of Discovery for its entire life," said NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, a mission specialist on Discovery's final flight, STS-133. Before joining the ranks of the astronaut corps, Stott worked in a variety of shuttle-processing roles at Kennedy.

"It's like sending someone from your family to go live somewhere else," Stott said. "Discovery's leaving home and starting a new life somewhere else."

The spacecraft's retirement journey began with today's ferry flight. It will then be removed from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and relocated to the Udvar-Hazy Center on April 19.

The Final Flight: Space Shuttle Discovery And SCA Pay Tribute With Flyby Of The KSC SLF

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