KSC-2012-2115

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery makes its way along the access road past the hangar at the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, in darkness. Its move 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/Jim Grossmann