Video: Final flight for oldest space shuttle Discovery

AFTER three decades of space service Discovery, NASA’s oldest shuttle, began its new life as a museum relic with one final take-off.

Discovery departed Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre aboard a modified jumbo jet bound for Washington, where it will become a Smithsonian exhibit. A cheer went up as the plane taxied down the runway and took off. The plane and Discovery headed south and made one last flight over the beaches of Cape Canaveral then returned to the space centre in a final salute.

Cheers erupted once more as the pair came in low over the runway it had left 20 minutes earlier and finally turned toward the north. Discovery is the most-travelled US shuttle with 39 space missions.