Shuttle Discovery final flight
 

Leaving Kennedy Tuesday morning around 8am or so? Arriving IAD between 10-11...after doing a city-tour fly-by at 1500ft. Hopefully it comes up the Potomac from the south, flys the DCA departure, and then intersects the pattern for IAD 19L. Would be super cool to be on the Potomac in a boat if that's the path.

Yep. Launches about 30 mls from my house. Amazing piece of technology and history.
Hate to see the program scrapped.
60 mins did a segment on the loss of jobs in the area but I have not watched it yet. Similar to an auto plant folding up their tent and leaving town but w/tons more history.
Our favorite hotel up there in Cocoa Beach was owned by 4 of the orig astronauts.

Just watched it land on the news. Very cool and a shame we don't have another program in place to replace it.
:flag::flag::flag::flag::flag::flag::flag::flag:

If I can figure out how to get photos from my phone, I'll post 'em.

let's see how these come out...

http://media.washtimes.com/media/ima...3d50eb7d86d89b
http://media.washtimes.com/media/ima...3d50eb7d86d89b
http://media.washtimes.com/media/ima...3d50eb7d86d89b
http://media.washtimes.com/media/ima...3d50eb7d86d89b
http://media.washtimes.com/media/ima...3d50eb7d86d89b
http://media.washtimes.com/media/ima...3d50eb7d86d89b
The Washington Times

I flew right over my office about 2 hrs. ago. Pretty cool to see! Too bad i couldn't get any pics.

Cool pics. We recently paid Russia to launch a satellite for us. :(

The shuttle was scheduled for replacement way back in 2005/2006. At about 30 years old, the time had come. It was very costly to launch just payload with the shuttle, many times more expensive than other means. It's primary advantage was in reusable and people-transport. This was great for the ISS, but with upgrades costing $300 to $400 million a year, it's age and drag on the budget set the timing. I think NASA was working on replacement in the early part of last decade, but talks of going to the moon and all changed that.

NASA had to be overhauled to have any sustainability. Now we have private companies working on separate solutions, and many people are being employed in these areas. NASA and the KSC will be far more targeted, and accountable.

Not great pictures, it it was very cool to see!!! :cool: