With yesterday’s landing, the Space Shuttle Discovery itself moves into the realm of space history.
(Shuttle Discovery in orbit. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons. Click to enlarge.)
Yours truly worked two Discovery landings when I was stationed at Edwards AFB. Even though my duty station was across the lakebed at the AF Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, I got to be part of the AF Flight Test Center shuttle recovery team, and was part of the contingency convoy for the landings of STS-33 and STS-31. Quite a thrill for a space-happy young officer!
An era is ending … I hope the next era will be even more spectacular.
by 
