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The Last Flight of Discovery

Today we said a bittersweet farewell to the space shuttle orbiter Discovery, as it headed off to retirement at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center atop a special 747.

On its way to Dulles Airport (where it landed just outside DC) from Kennedy Space Center (where it took off from), it made approximately 4 loops around the Washington, DC metro area. There are many spectacular pictures of it, many of them taken by people lucky enough to look up and see it. Check out the #spottheshuttle hash tag on twitter to see some of them.

The official photos from NASA HQ, many taken from the T-38 chase plane, are spectacular. The photo below is from that set.

Space Shuttle Discovery DC Fly-Over (201204170006HQ)
Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz

The shuttle did fly over NASA Goddard and was a beautiful if bittersweet sight. There is a Flickr group that has lots of photos taken by NASA Goddard folks. If you are one of them, consider adding your photos.

We’ll leave with you a couple of photos taken by friends from Goddard.


Discovery flies over NASA Goddard
Credit: Tim Reichart


Discovery flies over NASA Goddard
Credit: Richard Kelley

Or try Craig’s stereo image:

Discovery Stereo 1
Credit: Craig Markwardt

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