KSC-2012-2093

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A team of aerospace workers accompanies space shuttle Discovery as it is towed to the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, in darkness at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its move from the Vehicle Assembly Building, in the background, got under way at 5 a.m. EDT. At the SLF, Discovery will be hoisted onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, with the aid of a mate-demate device. The SCA, a modified Boeing 747 jet airliner, is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on permanent public display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. For more information on shuttle transition and retirement activities, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis