14 DAY TRIAL // During the official transfer ceremony that saw NASA officials hand over one of their three remaining orbiters to representatives of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the space shuttle Discovery met the shuttle Enterprise face to face.
More accurately, they met nose to nose, on the tarmac at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, in Chantilly, Virginia. This is where Enterprise has been exhibited for years, and where Discovery is scheduled to be installed.
Enterprise – the test shuttle that never flew to space – is being sent to New York, for display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Its former spot will be taken by Discovery, which flew 39 missions to space, totaling around 365 days in Earth's orbit.
The shuttle was the first to be retired. It was delivered from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, to the Washington Dulles International Airport, in Virginia, on April 17, after a detour that took it above the US Capitol.