Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, lifted off at 6:58 a.m. EDT (1058 GMT) on April 17, 2012 from the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.

Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flies into the sunrise above Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 17, 2012. The ferry flight, destined for Washington, D.C., marked the final departure for Discovery from its home for three decades.

Space shuttle Discovery, departing on a ferry flight for delivery to the Smithsonian, flies by the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the future home of space shuttle Atlantis. In the background can be seen the complex's Rocket Garden.