A little before 5PM today, NASA lit the fuse to the flying bombs used to blast the space shuttles into space and they worked! The SRBs successfully hurled Discovery towards the heavens for its last mission, as the space agency continues to retire the orbiters and the shuttle program itself, which is currently scheduled to end with the launches of Endeavour and Atlantis later this year.
Earlier today, photographers secured their cameras in protective housings, some of them more overtly DIY than others, and braced their tripods with sandbags in the hopes of capturing the perfect last shot of the space shuttle Discovery as it, finally, lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center for its final flight tomorrow. It’s the most traveled orbiter in NASA’s fleet and will formally be retired after this mission and likely carted off to Manhattan and put on display along with the other stuff at the Intrepid museum. (Photo: Space Flight Now/Facebook)
The space shuttle Discovery was supposed to blast off on November 1st. It’s now December 21st and according to the latest press release, isn’t going anywhere till February. The soon-to-be phased out orbiter is being removed from the launch pad today and rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center so workers can reinspect the foam insulation on the shuttle’s external tank.
The space shuttle that many New Yorkers are clamoring for, Discovery, landed at Kennedy Space Center earlier today and is seen here getting a tow back to the NASA garage.
Photo: collectspace
After a mission, the space shuttle routinely lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California and is flown back to Florida. Amazingly, the 200,000 pound orbiter is affixed to the top of a specially-fitted 747 making it quite the spectacle. Here’s some photos of Discovery in Texas, one of several refueling stops on its $1.8 million flight back East.
Photos by Tony Boyer
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