If the Shuttle Discovery Had a Middle Finger I Think it Would Use it Today

Space Shuttle Discovery makes one last flight over the people that killed the program:

On Tuesday, April 17, between 10 and 11 a.m. EDT, space shuttle Discovery, mounted on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, will fly from Kennedy Space Center to its new home at the National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center. Individuals in the Washington metropolitan area will have the opportunity to see Discovery before it lands at Dulles International Airport.

Though the exact route and timing of the flight depend on weather and operational constraints, the SCA is expected to fly at approximately 1,500 feet near a variety of landmarks in the area, including the National Mall, Reagan National Airport, National Harbor and the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center.

While this is being hailed as some sort of special moment for Washington DC, everybody in the government who had a hand in killing this program should hang their heads in shame as Discovery flies by. Thanks to the profligate spending of Washington bureaucrats the country can no longer afford to put its own people in space.

Discovery will take the place of Enterprise, a test aircraft that was used in the early glide tests but never flew in space. I saw Enterprise during a 2005 visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport.

There's been quite a bit of controversy over the placement of the retired Shuttles. Houston, TX, which played a huge role in the space program since the Mercury program, won't get one. It's been seen as a petty political slap at a state that refuses to fall for the Obama magic.

Today is not a day to celebrate, but a day to mourn the end of an important era in American exceptionalism.

UPDATE:  A photo from Discovery's overflight of Washington D.C.  The landing was almost 40 minutes later than planned and caused Obama to delay his oil company-bashing presser.  I have to believe NASA was sending a message.