While Discovery is waiting to be unloaded at the airport, many planes have landed just for the sake of knowledge, and some lucky passengers were able to see from a bird's eye view the spectacular sight of Discovery riding the jumbo plane
Ken Cramer, website Universe Today
After the space shuttle Discovery's final flight from the Florida spaceport and a salute in the skies over Washington, aboard a 747, it landed at its permanent home at the Smithsonian in Virginia on April 17. The duo drove down the runway at Dulles Airport to a temporary parking spot in one of the airport's aircraft parking lots.
While Discovery was waiting to be unloaded at the airport, many planes landed right in the know, and some lucky passengers were able to see from a bird's eye view the spectacular sight of Discovery riding the jumbo plane.
A pair of large cranes - one in front and one behind Discovery, which weighs about 75 tons, removed the shuttle, the plane moved backwards and Discovery's landing gear was extended. The cranes lowered the shuttle to the ground in a kind of exquisite ballet dance.
The cranes are ready for action, flanked by Discovery and NASA jetliner 905 at Dulles Airport on April 17, 2012. Photo: Ken Cramer.
A small team left over from Space Shuttle workers has been preparing the site at Dulles Airport for the past few weeks. The workers dug stabilization holes in the ground and connected the cranes that were borrowed from a company in New Jersey and flown from a job site in Canada.
The flagship of the shuttles is expected to travel a short distance to its permanent home at the Air and Space Museum at the Steven O'Daver-Hazy Center in Chanilly, Virginia.
Yesterday (April 19) the Discovery was driven to the museum. For those present at the event it was a once in a lifetime experience - to see two shuttles - Discovery and Enterprise standing side by side for about four hours.
The space shuttle Enterprise, which was used for unmanned experiments before the official start of the shuttle era, will be removed from the Odbar-Hazy Center, where it has been since 2003 to make way for Discovery.
During the weekend, the Enterprise will be loaded onto the Boeing plane and will fly to its new home in New York on April 23, weather permitting. Enterprise will land at Kennedy Airport and will eventually be transferred to the Intrepid Maritime and Space Museum in Manhattan.
