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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Once in a Lifetime

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012, I had the opportunity to experience a once-in-a-lifetime event. The Space Shuttle Discovery was flown from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Dulles Airport in Virginia. And it just so happens that the building I normally work in at Dulles has a wonderful view of the airport. :)

Wide Angle shot
 
Approach for the first flyover of Dulles
It was such an amazing sight to see but kind of a sad one too. I used to want to be an astronaut when I was younger (specifically a payload specialist/scientist). My grandmother even bought me a replica of the jumpsuits for Space Camp. I wore it for Halloween several years. :) My parents used to live near Edwards Air Force Base and would watch this same sight when the shuttle needed to land in California then be ferried back to Florida. Mom even told me that one of my granfathers worked on the shuttle program.


Now that the shuttle program is ending and the shuttles retired, it's also the last time this amazing site will be seen. Well, for Discovery at least. Enterprise will be ferried from Virginia to New York on Friday (weather and other conditions permitting). Endeavor will be ferried to Los Angeles sometime this fall. But for Discovery, the journey has ended here. It will be intriguing to see what the next chapter holds for space exploration.

Banking to make the approach for landing

Godspeed Discovery!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan


1 comment:

Julie Abel said...

How cool that you got to see this! I am a bit envious of you guys living around the DC area. One of my favorite places ever. Your pictures of Discovery are awesome!