Aware that the entire fleet of space shuttles had been decommissioned, and designated for new homes in museums around the country, we knew of one en route to the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazey near us.
Surprisingly, we heard this morning that the Space Shuttle Discovery would be piggy-backing THIS DAY on a NASA 747 to Washington DC’s Dulles Airport!
There was hope we might see it, since we live in the flight path.
However, when I looked at the fly-over map at the Dulles website, only Dulles and Washington DC were targeted.
Hopeful nonetheless, we took our books to the deck at 10am, the ETA for Space Shuttle Discovery.
We jumped at every plane sound, because normal flights were still on target (mostly) for the day.
By 10:18, I went inside to check the Dulles website which said that the shuttle had safely landed at their airport.
Saddened, I broke the news to the kids.
We returned indoors to our various studies…when my son yelled, “SOMETHING IS ROARING LOUDLY OUT THERE!”
Running onto the deck, we looked up and saw the space shuttle!
WOW!
After the initial belly view, we hurriedly scrambled for our cameras.
My son took all of these with both of our cameras.
We got to watch it soar through the sky for the longest time as it circled around.
Then it returned for another fly-over! The little plane is the chaser, T-38 jet.
It looked like it flew out to Warrenton!
I exclaimed, Lafayette and Teddy Roosevelt visited Warrenton…the Discovery didn’t want to be left out!
Now for upbeat Discovery trivia:
- It was the third shuttle, arriving at Kennedy Space Center in 1983.
- The name, Discovery, has historic inspiration from previous explorers, like Henry Hudson’s ship which explored Hudson Bay and James Cook’s ship when he discovered the Hawaiian Islands.
- In 1990, Discovery carried the Hubble Telescope into space.
- Astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit earth in 1962, became the oldest astronaut in space when he flew on the Discovery in 1998, at the age of 77.
After the flyover, we watched NASA TV on-line to watch the landing and press announcement.
Many years ago, I saw the space shuttle Columbia at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, en route to Kennedy Space Center in Florida from its factory in California, so it could become the first space shuttle to launch into space.
How bittersweet, to have witnessed both the beginning and the end of an era.
Never again will Discovery soar through the air.
What a significant time to put aside book-school to watch history in the making.
My kids will one day tell their kids about this.
