THE FINAL FLIGHT OF SPACE SHUTTLE 'DISCOVERY'

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One of my lifelong ambitions was to witness a launch of the space shuttle. Sadly with NASA retiring the shuttle programme this went the same way as Narelle wanting to attend an Oprah Winfrey show. However, I have had one of the great bonuses today. I was quietly sitting on the sofa watching CNN this morning when they crossed live to a scene that looked all too familiar and very close to our hotel. I was outside within moments when they said that Discovery would be taking its final flight over the National Mall.

The shuttle was being delivered to the Smithsonian and was being piggy-backed on a 747 Jumbo. My only problem was that I was at street level and most others had come out of offices and gone to the roof of their buildings – there was quite a crowd gathering and I could tell by their reactions that the plane was somewhere nearby. I made a snap decision and raced to the top floor of our hotel hoping that as I was in the lift it did not go by. I was lucky as minutes after getting to the top level the huge plane came into view. It went right-angles to the Capitol and away. WOW! It was huge and the most graceful plane I had ever seen and a little bit of me felt my ambition was coming true – it was kind of flying!

I went and got Narelle who had quickly accepted that I was off on one of my “moments” and could end up anywhere - she most probably thought she had more chance of seeing me on CNN during the rest of the day. Then we got the flybys as it went the full length of the Mall twice over the Monument and up over the Capitol. It was a stunning sight. Here was a craft that was more used to orbiting the earth flying along at quite a low altitude with two US Air Force jets accompanying it – quite a sight and I am so thankful we saw it. From a selfish point of view it was the most well timed live cross that I have seen on CNN for a while. If I had read about this in the papers tomorrow I would have been gutted. The photos show how close it was – it’s just such a shame that we will not see the like of this craft for some time. Just as when Concorde was retired there is nothing to replace it and I think that is not what the Space Race was supposed to be about.

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