Spaceflight Now




Spaceport to Smithsonian: Discovery flies away
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: April 17, 2012


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The space shuttle orbiter Discovery, part of Kennedy Space Center's heart and soul for three decades, departed the Florida spaceport forever this morning en route to become a museum exhibit at the Smithsonian's annex in Northern Virginia.


Discovery departs Kennedy Space Center at sunrise.
Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now

 
Lumbering down the three-mile runway built for landing shuttles returning from space, the carrier jet's four engines strained to reach a speed of 180 knots before gracefully taking flight at 6:58 a.m. EDT.

Initially heading towards the south, the unique flying duo buzzed the Space Coast beaches of Brevard County in a stirring farewell to the locals who saw Discovery successfully soar into space 39 times. The aircraft then made a U-turn and did another low-altitude pass above the Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex and the runway in a final goodbye to the ship's home since 1983, the site that had prepared and sent her sailing on a career spanning 148 million miles and 5,830 orbits of the planet.

Discovery carried out both shuttle return-to-flight missions in 1988 and 2005 to help America's space program rebound after tragedies, performed daring satellite repair missions in the early 1980s, deployed the Hubble Space Telescope and the Ulysses solar probe during launches in 1990, did the first rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir in 1995 and final joint shuttle docking in 1998, and played an integral role in building the International Space Station.

Construction of Discovery began in August 1979 and the spacecraft was rolled out of the Palmdale factory in October 1983. She became NASA's third operational space shuttle with a maiden voyage in August 1984, ultimately accumulating a full year's worth of time flying in space over the three-decade life before returning to Earth in March 2011 for a final landing.


Discovery rides piggyback atop 747.
Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Spaceflight Now

 
Grounding the space shuttles was a national policy ordered by President George W. Bush on Jan. 14, 2004, a decision that called for flying only the minimum number of additional missions to finish constructing the International Space Station before retiring the spaceplanes.

The change in direction for the U.S. space program came in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, the second fatal accident for the shuttles. The remaining orbiters would conduct just 22 more flights after Columbia, completing the orbiting science laboratory and giving one last tuneup to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Bush Administration proposed a new capsule and rocket design that would come online a few years after the shuttle fleet stopped flying, automatically creating "a gap" in American access to space. But that turmoil has spiraled and the inability for the U.S. to launch its own people into space has grown even longer, extending NASA's reliance on Russia to ferry all crews to the station through at least 2017.

President Barack Obama terminated Bush's proposed follow-on system and turned to the private sector in hopes firms like Boeing or SpaceX could develop the means to launch Americans again on a quicker timeline and for less money, but Congress has slashed recent funding for that concept and "the gap" goes on.

All that is certain with space program these days is the final resting places for the orbiters -- Discovery, Enterprise, Endeavour and Atlantis.


Discovery passes over Washington, D.C.
Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Spaceflight Now
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After climbing to a cruising altitude of 15,000 feet at 300 knots with Discovery aboard, the carrier jet that NASA purchased from American Airlines in 1974 and had configured to carry the spaceplanes beginning with the program's earliest years, flew over Georgia, the Carolinas and into Virginia before descending to make further flyovers.

First up with a pass by the Dulles International Airport and Discovery's future home in the Smithsonian annex, then the piggybacking shuttle headed for the nation's capital to make a couple of loops around the sites and landmarks of Washington, D.C. before returning to Dulles for a tire-smoking touchdown at 11:05 a.m. EDT.

Technicians at Dulles today immediately went work to detach Discovery from the 747, getting special gear readied for the heavy-lifting job to come. They will use a mobile contraption of dual cranes to hoist the 166,000-pound spaceplane off the aircraft tomorrow, deploying the shuttle's landing gear and setting her onto the ground.

She will be towed to the National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Thursday in a public parade to celebrate the new exhibit's arrival.


Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Spaceflight Now
 
The prototype orbiter Enterprise, which made a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s, has been on display at the museum since it opened in 2003. She will be pulled from the center early Thursday, then pose for a double shuttle photo opportunity before Discovery rolls in.

Enterprise then heads for the apron where the 747 is parked to be hoisted atop the jet in preparation for a ferryflight to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport next Monday, weather permitting.

Once the mobile crane system is finished at Dulles, it will be packed up, trucked to JFK and reassembled for the task of lowering Enterprise there.

But that "traveling roadshow" and the time required to set up the lifting equipment means the 747 and Enterprise will remain coupled together for about three weeks, sitting patiently within a large tent-like de-icing facility at the airport.

Later this June, Enterprise takes a 30-mile barge ride to reach the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the Hudson River. NASA will lend the museum a sling to raise the orbiter off the barge and onto the vintage aircraft carrier now a floating display site of historic aircraft.

Meanwhile, Endeavour and Atlantis remain in their hangars at the Kennedy Space Center still progressing through the decommissioning work. What's more, technicians are scavenging key pieces of equipment from the ships' propulsion systems that can be used in NASA's envisioned heavy-lift launch vehicle.

Endeavour plans to begin her cross-country ferryflight to Los Angeles on Sept. 30 and Atlantis will be moved down the road on or about Nov. 13 to the new display building being constructed at KSC's Visitor Complex, which will open to the public next summer.





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VIDEO: LAUNCH DAY REHEARSAL BEGINS PLAY | HI-DEF
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VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH ERIC BOE PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH AL DREW PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH TIM KOPRA PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH MIKE BARRATT PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE STOTT PLAY

VIDEO: PAYLOADS INSTALLED INTO DISCOVERY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: MISSION PAYLOADS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CANISTER HAULING PAYLOADS TURNED UPRIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: MODULE HOISTED INTO SHIPPING CANISTER PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: WEIGHING NEW SPACE STATION MODULE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: GANTRY PLACED AROUND DISCOVERY PLAY | HI-DEF
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VIDEO: SHUTTLE HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO TANK PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CRANE ROTATES THE ORBITER VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: DISCOVERY DEPARTS ITS HANGAR PLAY | HI-DEF

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VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE SHOWS THE MOVE TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY

VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S MAIDEN FLIGHT: FIRST TRIP TO VAB PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S MAIDEN FLIGHT: ROLLOUT TO PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S MAIDEN FLIGHT: TEST-FIRING ENGINES PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S MAIDEN FLIGHT: ASSORTED VIEWS OF FRF PLAY

VIDEO: THE HISTORY OF SHUTTLE DISCOVERY PLAY
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VIDEO: ROBONAUT ARRIVES AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: SPACE STATION'S SPARE THERMAL RADIATOR PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: BLANKETING LEONARDO WITH INSULATION PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: RACK INSERTED INTO LEONARDO FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: LEONARDO RETURNS FROM ITS PREVIOUS FLIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: STATION'S SPARE PARTS DEPOT ARRIVES PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ORBITER'S PAYLOAD BAY CLOSED FOR ROLLOUT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS VISIT THEIR SPACECRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW INSPECTS LEONARDO MODULE PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: DISCOVERY RECEIVES ITS MAIN ENGINES PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: FUEL TANK MATED TO SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: HOISTING FUEL TANK INTO CHECKOUT BAY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: EXTERNAL FUEL TANK UNLOADED FROM BARGE PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: MISSION'S FUEL TANK ARRIVES AT SPACEPORT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: POST-FLIGHT DESERVICING: OMS POD PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: POST-FLIGHT DESERVICING: OBSS BOOM PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: POST-FLIGHT DESERVICING: ENGINES PLAY | HI-DEF
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