Last flight of Discovery shuttle

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United Space Alliance technicians secure several of space shuttle Endeavour's main propulsion system tanks after they were removed from the orbiter's mid-body, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on March 21, 2012. The tanks will be retained for possible future use on the agency's Space Launch System Program. (NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

 

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At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers disconnect the remote manipulator system, or RMS, from space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay, on June 15, 2011. (NASA/Tim Jacobs)

 

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At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, technicians monitor the progress as a large crane lifts and moves the forward reaction control system closer for installation on space shuttle Endeavour, on February 8, 2012. The FRCS helped maneuver a shuttle while it was in orbit. The FRCS was removed from Endeavour and sent to White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico to be cleaned of its toxic propellants.(NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

 

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Inside NASA's Orbiter Processing Facility-1 in Florida, among hundreds of signatures, technicians transfer seats to the middeck of space shuttle Discovery for installation, on February 14, 2012. (NASA/Jim Grossmann)

 

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A crane lifts the airlock from the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis in Orbiter Processing Facility-2 in Florida, on December 21, 2011. The airlock was the connecting point between the shuttle and International Space Station. It was removed as part of the ongoing work to prepare the shuttles for public display. (NASA/Jim Grossmann)

 

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Space Shuttle Endeavour is parked at the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, on August 11, 2011 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images)

 

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Inside the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engine shop at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a view of the interior of the engine bell of one of the replica shuttle main engines, on December 2, 2011. (NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

 

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An employee guides a replica shuttle main engine toward installation on space shuttle Discovery, on December 5, 2011. This is the first of three replica engines to be installed. Discovery is being prepared for display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. (NASA/Jim Grossmann)

 

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Lined up in a row, six Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne space shuttle main engines sit on stands inside the Engine Shop at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on October 14, 2011. For the first time, all 15 main engines were in the Engine Shop at the same time. They were being prepared for shipment to NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for storage following the completion of the Space Shuttle Program. The engines are being repurposed for use on NASA's Space Launch System heavy lift rocket. (NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

 

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In the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility, technicians guide a transportation canister as it encloses a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne space shuttle main engine, on January 12, 2012. This was the second of the 15 engines used during the Space Shuttle Program to be prepared for transfer to NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. (NASA/Gianni Woods)

 

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Lt. Col. Gabriel Green and Capt. Zachary Bartoe patrol the airspace in an F-15E Strike Eagle as the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) launches from Kennedy Space Center in this U.S. Air Force handout image dated May 14, 2010, Colonel Green is the 333rd Fighter Squadron commander and Captain Bartoe is a 333rd FS weapons system officer both assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. REUTERS/U.S. Air Force/Capt. John Peltier/Handout

 

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Astronaut Dale Gardner, having just completed the major portion of his second extravehicular activity (EVA) period in three days, holds up a For Sale sign referring to the two satellites, Palapa B-2 and Westar 6 that they retrieved from orbit after their Payload Assist Modules (PAM) failed to fire, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in this NASA handout photo dated November 14, 1984. Astronaut Joseph P. Allen IV, who also participated in the two EVAs, is reflected in Gardner's helmet visor. A portion of each of two recovered satellites is in the lower right corner, with Westar 6 nearer Discovery's aft. REUTERS/NASA/Handout/Files

 

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