Space shuttle Discovery flies to new home

摘要

The Space Shuttle Discovery made a dramatic arrival over Washington, D.C. on April 17, seizing the attention of onlookers as it circled the capital region on the back of its jumbo-jet carrier plane before landing at Dulles International airport. The Associated Press reported that the plane-shuttle combo completed three "victory laps" flying low and slow at 1,500 feet, over familiar monuments and landmarks, before landing at Dulles. Discovery was installed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Chantilly, Virginia, on April 19, after appearing with the shuttle Enterprise, which it replaced as the focal point of the museum's human space flight exhibit.