Victory lap

A friend and former coworker of mine is a Congressional staffer, and got to catch space shuttle Discovery’s “victory lap” on the back of a 747 en route to Dulles International, where Discovery will be headed for its final destination… a museum.

I remember back in the ’70s, there was no more beautiful sight than this big aerodynamic looking spaceship of the future catching a ride on a 747 cross-country. The first time NASA dropped it off the back of the 747 to see if it would glide as designed or drop like a rock, it was break-into-programming-for-half-an-hour newsworthy.

Seeing the remaining shuttles ferried around on a 747 now is just sad. Another reminder that the shuttle era is over and done with. They’ll never fly again – except like this, to where they’ll become former spaceships.