Departs Kennedy Space Center For The Last Time Aboard 747 Transport Aircraft

NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Discovery on top will fly above sections of the Central Florida coastline and Brevard County on Tuesday, April 17, starting at about 0700 EDT. This will be the final time Discovery will take to the skies over Florida's Space Coast as the spacecraft will be headed to its new home at the Smithsonian in Virginia.

The Space Coast flyover is expected to head south from Kennedy down the coastline past Patrick Air Force Base and then head back up north along the coast to Kennedy where it will make a pass over the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and shuttle runway one last time before the SCA heads out of the area.

Discovery will be transported to Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, VA, and then offloaded and transferred to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, for permanent public display on April 19. Before landing at Dulles on Tuesday, the SCA and Discovery are expected to fly near a variety of landmarks in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area between 1000 and 1100 EDT.

While travelling north to Dulles, the SCA is expected generally to fly up the coastline in Georgia and the Carolinas before taking a more inland route over Virginia. The exact route and timing of the flight depend on weather and operational constraints. (Image provided by NASA)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/ntv, www.nasa.gov/transition