The DC region was treated to a historic flyover by the Space Shuttle Discovery riding atop a 747 earlier today, en route to its final home at the suburban Dulles annex of the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. And, while I may not have impressive capital region views from my office, I conveniently (?) work across the street from the Dulles Airport and was able to take in Discovery’s curtain call (video above).
Like many of you, the Shuttle program captured my imagination as a child and I watched many a launch… either on television or by following the contrails across the Florida sky where I grew up. Sadly, I never actually made it to Cape Canaveral for a more first hand experience and the best opportunity I had was derailed by a weather delay. So it goes? Although, I did make it to Space Camp and celebrated whenever it was that I hit 5’4″ (or was it 5’2″?) – the minimum height requirement for astronauts at the time.
Surely this represents the end of an era. As a coworker asked on camera while losing the Shuttle between buildings, “Where’d it go?” Indeed. Where did America’s manned space exploration programs go? Guess other (costly) interests and obligations have taken national priority. And we currently find ourselves without a Shuttle replacement program and a contested NASA budget. Perhaps the private sector will pick up the torch or maybe we’ll one day find ourselves in an era of peace and budget surpluses. In the interim, we’ll continue to hitch rides to and from the International Space Station via Russian rockets. Pack that caviar and vodka!
Below are a few fun pics shot by pals today near (or at) Dulles. Far left, my wife took in the flyovers and landing from the Sully Historic Site. Center, Joel Ward captured the landing from the top of his office – just down the road from mine. And, far right, Tom snapped this beauty from the tarmac.
