Space shuttle Discovery salutes US capital

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press

US space shuttle Discovery sitting atop NASA's 747 shuttle carrier aircraft flies over the National Mall in Washington,DC on April 17. AFP photo

The space shuttle Discovery soared over the Washington Monument, the White House and the Capitol in a high-flying salute to the U.S. capital today.

The world's most traveled spaceship, hitching a ride on top a Boeing 747 jet, took a couple of leisurely spins at an easy-to-spot 457 meters around Washington after a flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

Thousands packed the National Mall in front of the Capitol to watch the pair swoop by.

"Look at that, that thing is mammoth," said Terri Jacobsen. She brought her 12-year-old son to the mall to watch the flyover. 

The shuttle-jet combo was set to land at Dulles International Airport. On Thursday, it will be towed to its permanent installation at an air museum annex in northern Virginia.

Discovery departed Florida's Kennedy Space Center at daybreak. Nearly 2,000 people - former shuttle workers, dignitaries, tourists and journalists - gathered along the old shuttle landing strip to see Discovery off. A cheer went up as the plane taxied down the runway and soared into a clear sky.

The plane and shuttle headed south and made one last flight over the beaches of Cape Canaveral - thousands jammed the shore for a glimpse of Discovery - then returned to the space center in a final salute. Cheers erupted once more as the pair came in low over the runway it had left 20 minutes earlier and finally turned toward the north.

Discovery - the fleet leader with 39 orbital missions - is the first of the three retired space shuttles to head to a museum.

NASA ended the shuttle program last summer after a 30-year run to focus on destinations beyond low-Earth orbit. Private U.S. companies hope to pick up the slack, beginning with space station cargo and then, hopefully, astronauts. The first commercial cargo run, by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is set to take place in a few weeks.
For at least the next three to five years - until commercial passenger craft are available in the United States - NASA astronauts will have to hitch multimillion-dollar rides on Russian Soyuz capsules to get to the International Space Station.