Happy Landings, Discovery

Discovery leaves Kennedy Space Center for greener pastures (and is put out to pasture.)

Space shuttle Discovery, on its way to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., passes the moon one last time as it flies low over Edgewater Tuesday morning. Photo by Tim Wilson.
An orbiter took the scenic route Tuesday morning, as space shuttle Discovery made her way to Washington Dulles International Airport. Discovery will be installed at the National Air & Space Museum on Thursday. I thought this snippet of the above article put it well:
It was a sad day out at the Kennedy Space Center for those of us who’ve been around the shuttle program for a while. Sure, we know the ships stopped flying last year, but watching preparations for Discovery’s final flight — in the horizontal, not vertical orientation — was sobering.
“I almost feel like I’m at a funeral and there’s the hearse,” said one of my long-time space reporter pals, Bill Harwood, with CBS.
Space shuttle Discovery mounted atop a 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, flies by the Washington Monument during a flyover of the nation's capital on its final trip (Getty Images)
NASM and NASA promoted this ...