Discovery's last ride

Today, the first operational space shuttle to be decommissioned and retired, Discovery, was flown over to Dulles International Airport in Virginia, to be placed as an exhibit in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (the annex to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum). It's spent a total of 365 days, 22 hours, 39 minutes and 29 seconds in space, and has traveled approximately 148,221,675 miles during its  27 years of successful service! If you're ever in the DC area, and you've got time to spare to travel over to the Udvar-Hazy center, DO IT! Don't miss an opportunity to see one of the greatest flying machines of our time!

"That was sure a short day."

50 years ago, US Marine aviator turned NASA astronaut, John Glenn, squeezed his way into the Friendship 7 launch capsule, and a few nerve-wracking hours later, blasted off into space to become America's first astronaut to orbit the earth!

Mission Control

13 seconds into the launch, John Glenn thought it was "little bumpy along about here". This guy definitely had the right stuff!

The view from above!

The full radio transcripts can be found here: http://mercury6.spacelog.org/page/