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| Photo contributed by Selby resident, Nick DiMauro |
The space shuttle Discovery took a victory lap...or two...over DC and Virginia on April 17, 2012. The 27 year old shuttle got a lift from a Boeing 727 and was escorted by a T-38. The shuttle arrived over Rossyln, Va at 9:55am and began many laps to allow folks to say goodbye. The 727 flew at an altitude of around 1500 feet and at some areas flew as low as 300 feet. The piggybacked duo flew for several hours over spectators and congested highways before a flawless landing at Dulles International at 11:00am.
The Discovery was the last shuttle in NASA's space shuttle program. Despite the tragedies of the Challenger in 1983 and the Columbia in 2003, the shuttle program was highly successful. Discovery worked for 27 years and visited space 39 times. In 2004, President Bush ordered NASA to end it's shuttle program by 2010. President Obama extended that deadline to 2011.
The Discovery will now make it's home at the Smithsonian's Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. It will replace the Enterprise which is a shuttle prototype. The Enterprise will be moved to New York City.
