Space Shuttle Discovery’s Retirement Flight

So anyone who follows sciencey news and whatnot was probably already aware that today was the day for the Space Shuttle Discovery to take its commute up to Washington DC to find its new retirement castle at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Sure, it’s kind of a bittersweet topic, but just for today let’s try to focus on the awesome and keep our fingers crossed that Florida’s Space Coast will still see its share of exploration long after the shuttle program is behind us…

Here’s a cool video of the shuttle and its carrier 747 in its final descent over the National Mall in DC:

Along with a nice, close-up view of the pair still on the ground from yesterday after NASA finalized securing the two for flight:

And finally, this one is thanks to National Geographic – click through the image below to pull up an incredibly detailed panoramic view of the entire orbiter’s cockpit, allowing you to zoom all the way in so that you can even check out the individual dials and buttons across the massive control center! Not sure how close guests will be able to get up to the shuttle once they get it situated at the museum, but I’m kinda guessing probably not this close…  😉

Pretty awesome stuff – happy exploring!

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