Thread: Shuttle to make Washington swoop

The space shuttle Discovery has taken off on its final voyage

One of Nasa's iconic space shuttles is to make a dramatic flypast over the centre of the US capital as it heads to its final resting place in a museum.
Discovery is scheduled to fly over the National Mall in Washington DC at about 10:00 EST (14:00 GMT).
Piggy-backing on a modified Boeing 747, Discovery will fly at an altitude of just 1,500ft (457m), Nasa said.
The shuttle programme ended in 2011. Discovery will go on show at the Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport.
As dawn broke on Tuesday crowds of onlookers gathered along the Florida shoreline to see the shuttle take off from Kennedy Space Center.
Cheers broke out from the estimated 2,000-strong crowd as the aircraft left the runway, the Associated Press reported.
Dozens of former shuttle workers and Nasa veterans were reported to be among the onlookers.
Discovery then passed low over a packed beach and made one final turn back over the runway at the space complex before climbing towards a cruising altitude.
The aircraft's fuselage was illuminated by the early Florida sunshine for moments before it headed out of sight on its journey up the East Coast.
Fleet leaderIn Washington, would-be shuttle-watchers were being advised to gather in the National Mall, the two-mile-long public park running through the heart of the city, for a prime view of the mid-morning flyover.
Discovery was expected to descend to 1,500ft and travel over the city's Waterfront area, the Mall, and a spot near the Jefferson Memorial.
The flypast was also expected to delight onlookers at a regular plane-spotting haunt, Gravelly Point Park, just outside the city limits in Virginia.
Discovery's final destination is an annex of the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum, situated in Virginia, close to Dulles, the main international airport serving Washington DC.
Discovery was the most-used of the shuttle fleet, flying 39 missions, and was designated the fleet leader.
It is the first of three remaining shuttles to head to a museum. Enterprise - the prototype shuttle - and Endeavour will make their final journeys later this year.
The shuttle fleet was decommissioned and the programme wound up in 2011, after 30 years in action, when construction was completed on the International Space Station.
Retirement of Nasa's iconic shuttle fleet was ordered by the US government, in part due to the high cost of maintaining the ships.
The decision leaves the country with no means of putting astronauts in orbit.


Article Source : BBC News

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Hope they bolted it down properly

Originally Posted by chefjames

Hope they bolted it down properly

It'd be the mother of all FAILS if they dropped it!

I loved the story of the young boy asking one of the astronauts there what he would need to do to become an astronaut.

the astronaut responded, " learn Russian"

a sad day for the US if you ask me. nothing there to celebrate period...

I agree it's really sad to see the Shuttle fleet retired with nothing to replace it at all. We are going from a country that was one of the most advanced if not the most advanced it space travel to a country with no means to send people into space.... it's sad.

As far as spotting and taking pictures of it, I never thought I would one day be able to take of picture of a shuttle landing at JFK. I just wish it wasn't the last time I will ever see that happen.

Now it's going to be up to Branson to get the job done - I've heard of privatizing but this is a little ridiculous

Originally Posted by chefjames

Now it's going to be up to Branson to get the job done - I've heard of privatizing but this is a little ridiculous

Exactly, NASA is a shell of it's former self, now we are going to leave it up to people like Branson to do it or the Russians.

I still find it amazing that there is nothing at all to replace the Shuttle fleet. When they shut down the program it seems like we just gave up on putting people into space and now we are going to depend on other countries. Sad sad sad....

Even though there are several private companies that are within several years of sending humans into space repeatedly, I think this is something that NASA should still be doing. Private companies are going to have no incentive to go to exotic places like Mars or even the Moon again to make new discoveries and advance the human race's ability to survive somewhere other than Earth. Private companies are only going to do what will make them money, and going to Mars is not one of them.

money money money is all the incentive anyone needs.......


we keep going backwards, remember way back when.... we had super sonic airliners, wow. gone nothing even close to replacing it.