Seen at the ceremony to exchange Discovery for Enterprise at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy museum at IAD. Discovery is now displayed there just as it appeared after its last flight.

On display at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, National Air and Space Museum. Named after a sailing ship that had pioneered scientific research, Discovery flew its first mission in 1984 and last in 2011 for a total of 39 spaceflights, more than any other Space Shuttle or spacecraft. It spent 365 days in space and clocked more than 238 million km. Reinforced carbon-carbon on the nose cone differs in color with the tessellation of 30,757 silica tiles forming the heat shield.

Of all the larger exhibits at the NASM Udvar-Hazy Center I presumed beforehand that this Shuttle would interest me the least. However, once actually up close to 'Discovery' I was completely starstruck, just trying to comprehend fully what it had experienced and what it had achieved was quite awe-inspiring.

The business end of 'Discovery'. After a total of exactly one year in space she has earned her retirement at the NASM Udvar-Hazy center.