It was a moment of pride, exhilaration, and tears as I watched the shuttle Discovery complete it’s final mission.  With this moment, the Untied States of America is out of the space flying business, for now anyway, but this morning it flew beautifully over Washington and to the surprise of most people on the ground, it did a spectacular fly by of the tower.

Discovery has flown 39 missions and all told spent a year in space.  It is the most traveled shuttle in history and now it will have a home in the Smithsonian.  Talk about miles.

The world’s most traveled spaceship landed Tuesday after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and soaring around the Washington Monument and White House in a salute to the nation’s capital. Discovery rode on the back of a 747 jet and took a spin around Washington at an easy-to-spot 1,500 feet before it was grounded for good.

Discovery will be towed Thursday to its installation at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum annex near Dulles in northern Virginia.

Discovery flew nearly 149 million miles before retiring last year.

For great photos and video see this article