Will visitors be allowed on board the Space Shuttle Discovery?
On Thursday, NASA handed the world's most traveled space shuttle over to the Smithsonian. Visitors won't be able to walk its decks, but they will be able to experience the shuttle's interior through interactive images.
In this photo, space shuttles Enterprise, left, and Discovery meet nose-to-nose at the beginning of a transfer ceremony at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Space shuttle Discovery will take the place of Enterprise at the center to commemorate past achievements in space and retire as an artifact representing the 30-year shuttle program.
AP Photo/Smithsonian Institution via NASA, Carolyn Russo
CHANTILLY, Virginia
NASA turned over space shuttle Discovery on Thursday to the Smithsonian Institution, the first in its orbiter fleet to be transferred to a U.S. museum.
The U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, astronauts including former Sen. John Glenn and several thousand visitors with American flags greeted Discovery. It will retire as an artifact representing the 30-year shuttle program.
The world's most traveled spaceship has been lifted off its Boeing 747 carrier and towed to the museum near Dulles International Airport.
Curator Valerie Neal said Discovery will be displayed as if it just landed, with its large payload bay doors closed. Some of its side panels are worn and discolored, and tiles on its underbelly show streaks from the flames of re-entry to the atmosphere.
The top question museum visitors have been asking is whether they will be able to walk inside Discovery or see the flight deck, Neal said.
