Farewell, Discovery!

The space shuttle orbiter Discovery, operational since 1984, took its final flight this week. On the back of a Boeing 747 the shuttle was transported to the Smithsonian's annex near Dulles Airport near where we life. The flight went over DC so viewers could gather and see the orbiter in flight. I didn't have the chance to go downtown to see this, but it turns out I didn't have to. It flew right over my office! You can't see the shuttle itself very well in the photos below, but it was there. (My phone camera didn't have many options for great pictures. You can also barely see the fighter jet consort to the left.

I always wanted to go see a shuttle flight, but time/resources never made it possible, so this was kinda cool for me. I remember as a fifth grader watching the first shuttle flight on TV in elementary school. It was a really big deal at the time, and was to be the beginning of major space age. I think many might agree that, although amazing and undeniably responsible for major innovations in our lives, the space program has not lived up to its promise. I was amazed to learn that a total of about 170 billion dollars was spent on the shuttle program from the 70's through 2008. I think that may be significantly less than a single year of U.S. military budget.