Space Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 11:57 a.m. 3-9-11. It was the end of her operational flying career as Discovery will be removed from service and made safe during a nine-month overhaul to make her museum ready. Word has it that Discovery will go to the Smithsonian Museum which means Udvar Hazy in Chantilly. The non-flyimg shuttle Enterprise is there now. It would be something to see two shuttles side by side!
Atlantis up on deck for a mission to the ISS next month and she too will be retired upon return and maybe end up in Ohio at a DoD centric museum. Endeavour flies this summer and may stay at KSC upon retirement. Each shuttle will be sold for over $28.8 million and must be housed in a dedicated building to protect them.
The ISS under went another configuration change with the delivery of a storage module and is quite an impressive view as you can see in this picture taken by the STS-133 crew upon their departure from the ISS on Monday. ISS is scheduled to remain opeartional for at least the next 9 years.
Sky Guy in VA
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