Discovery's last piggy back ride
by AnnaJo Vahle
Title
Discovery's last piggy back ride
Artist
AnnaJo Vahle
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This was the sight that I and many others saw as we stood on Satellite Beach, Florida. I had seen it's launch and return many times throughout the years. The rising sun broke through the haze to cast a warm glow upon the two-some.
The space shuttle Discovery made its final voyage on Tuesday, April 17, 2012: a piggyback jet ride to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia.
The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a project of 15 countries, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station's 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit.
Discovery, the fleet leader of NASA's three surviving shuttles, completed its last spaceflight in March 2011. It was promised to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, the nation's official repository for space artifacts.
For its last ride, Discovery took off not from its seaside launch pad but atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier jet that taxied down the Kennedy Space Center's runway at dawn. The shuttle's tail was capped with an aerodynamically shaped cone and its windows were covered.
"It's a very emotional, poignant, bittersweet moment," said former astronaut Mike Mullane, a veteran of three space shuttle missions. "When it's all happening you think, �This will never end,' but we all move on."
After a looping around the U.S. capital and delighting spectators on the National Mall, the shuttle carrier plane touched down at Washington Dulles International Airport shortly after 11 a.m. EDT.
Discovery, which first flew in August 1984, was to be transferred to the Smithsonian's nearby Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
Discovery will replace Enterprise, a prototype orbiter on display at the museum that was used for atmospheric test flights in the 1970s.
11/9/22...tied 1st place in YOU CAN NO LONGER SEE THIS SCENE
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January 7th, 2013
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Comments (23)
Gary F Richards
Outstanding composition, lighting, shading, color and heavy metal artwork! F/L …voted for this piece in the HEAVY METAL PHOTOS ONLY
Nick Boren
Wow... this is an awesome site AnnJo... and what an amazing photograph of the space shuttle piggy backing. :-) F/V/FB
AnnaJo Vahle replied:
Thank you, Nick. It was a pleasure to witness it. I appreciate your vote, etc.
Debbie Portwood
Fantastic shot!! Gorgeous light! v/f (you asked if the news bee was on my finger. Yes! :D I was very suprised that is landed thee and I had a hard time trying to hold the camera and shoot with one hand and all the while trying not to scare him away! One of those very lucky shot! :D Thank you so much for your kind comments and support!
Nadine and Bob Johnston
Love Airplanes, Love flying, even have 23,000 hours in a flight sim, but cant pass the physical to fly. 8=(( This is a shot that I really wish Was mine... V, F, and Tweet to our 23,000 followers..
AnnaJo Vahle replied:
Thank you very much. I was quite fortunate to witness it and to do it on such a lovely morning. Too bad that you couldn't fly.
John Malone
This is most likely a very rare one of a kind image of the retirement of the shuttle! What a unique and successful shot!!
AnnaJo Vahle replied:
Thank you very much, John. I almost didn't bother to get up early that morning!
Jeff Swan
Wow!!!!!!
AnnaJo Vahle replied:
That's what I thought when it flew so close above me that I had to back down to focus. Lucky to have seen it.
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