Shuttle Discovery goes from runway to museum - msnbc.com

CHANTILLY, Va.?— The space shuttle Discovery is moving into its new home in the Smithsonian, and the prototype shuttle Enterprise is moving out, New York City-bound.

To mark the switch, NASA and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum are kicking off a four-day celebration at the museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center here on Thursday, with Discovery and Enterprise sitting nose-to-nose as the guests of honor. The ceremony, to be aired live on NASA TV at 11 a.m. ET, features such luminaries as former senator/astronaut John Glenn and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who have both flown on Discovery in space.

The stage was set for the ceremony early Thursday, when Enterprise was rolled outside from the place it's held in the Udvar-Hazy Center since 1985. Meanwhile, Discovery was hoisted off the modified NASA 747 jet, which it rode piggyback on Tuesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Dulles International Airport.

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It was just a short three-mile tow from the Dulles runway to the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Thursday's ceremony is the opening splash for a "Welcome Discovery" festival at the center, featuring space-related activities, performances, appearances by astronauts, films and displays. Friday will be "Student Discovery Day" — and on Saturday and Sunday, the museum will be serving up a full schedule of activities for families.

When NASA announced the shuttle fleet's retirement, the Smithsonian got first pick of the orbiters, and decided to go with Discovery.

"NASA and the Smithsonian signed an agreement in 1967 that has enabled the National Air and Space Museum to preserve and display the greatest icons of our nation's space history," Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey, the museum's director, explained in a statement. "At the Udvar-Hazy Center, Discovery will be seen by millions of people in the coming years, especially children, who will become the next generation of scientists, engineers, researchers and explorers."

Discovery was the first shuttle to be decommissioned, back in March 2011. The orbiter flew 39 missions, more than any other shuttle in history, logging 148,221,675 miles on its odometer during 365 days in outer space. Its achievements include deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, John Glenn's flight in 1998 at the age of 77 (which made him the oldest person to fly in space), and the "return to flight" missions after the Challenger explosion and the Columbia disaster.

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Discovery's sister orbiters, Atlantis and Endeavour, will be headed to Florida's Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center and the California Science Center in Los Angeles, respectively.

The Enterprise is a special case: It was used as an aerodynamic test vehicle during the shuttle's development but never flew in space. Weather permitting, it will be loaded up on the modified 747 at Dulles, just as Discovery was in Florida, and flown to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as early as next week.

From there, the Enterprise will ride a barge to its new home on the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, docked at Pier 86 on Manhattan's West Side.

Follow msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle) for updates on Discovery's transfer.

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