New home for Discovery shuttle

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Discovery, the oldest of NASA's retired space shuttle fleet, will leave its home at Kennedy Space Center at daybreak Tuesday for the final time, riding atop a modified jumbo jet.

Its destination: the Smithsonian Institution's hangar outside Washington, D.C. After a farewell flight over Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and jet will swoop over the nation's capital, including the National Mall, before landing in Virginia.

The six astronauts who flew Discovery's final trip a year ago were on hand Monday to bid it goodbye.

First launched in 1984, Discovery flew 39 times in space, more than any other shuttle. At the Smithsonian's hangar at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, it replaces Enterprise, the prototype that is bound for the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan.