Space Shuttle Discovery, NASA’s oldest and most traveled shuttle, will make its final takeoff from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at daybreak on Tuesday abroad a modified jumbo jet, a NASA jetliner. Discovery is expected to soar over Washington, D.C. and the Capitol Mall as it makes its way to its permanent residence at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
Discovery is the first of the three retired space shuttles to head to a museum. It will go on display, as a Smithsonian exhibit, to take the place of the shuttle prototype Enterprise, which will go to New York City. Atlantis will remain at the Kennedy Space Center, and Endeavour will head to Los Angeles in the fall.
