Flyby Discovery

Will, Stirling, and I went to the National Cathedral this morning to watch the space shuttle Discovery fly over the city before making its way to its new home at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum Annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, out by Dulles Airport.

On the back of a souped-up 747 jumbo jet, the space shuttle Discovery made about 3 passes over the city, mainly over the National Mall, by the Washington Monument and Capitol Building.  But it did buzz the towers at the National Cathedral!

Discovery is NASA's longest serving shuttle, having blasted off into space 39 times, started at Cape Canveral, FL in the morning and had landed at Dulles by 11 am.  It flew over the city for about 45 minutes.  It was accompanied by a chaser fighter jet

What was amazing to watch from the Cathedral was the number of adults wanting to catch a glimpse, whereas the school kids weren't interested.  There are two schools on either side of the Cathedral, only about 12 students--all boys-- were out to watch the flyby.  The rest of the crowd were all our age or older adults, all of us had grown up with the Space Race or watching each of the shuttles' take-offs or landings from their missions in space.

Click here to watch the shuttle landing and taking off.

It was a bittersweet moment for sure-- awe-inspiring to watch the flight of the shuttle and sad, knowing that there were no more US shuttles flying to the moon.

To learn more about the flight and the shuttle, the Air and Space Museum has a web site dedicated to Discovery.    Truly an amazing morning!