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Evening light begins to fade at NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (later redesignated Armstrong Flight Research Center), Edwards, Calif., as technicians begin the task of mounting the Space Shuttle Atlantis atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., following its STS-44 flight Nov. 24 through Dec. 1, 1991. After 38 years, the grey-colored space shuttle Mate-Demate Device (MDD) at Edwards Air Force Base is being dismantled and demolished as a part of the final chapter in the U.S. space shuttle program. (NASA courtesy photo)
Final Endeavour
NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, carrying space shuttle Endeavour, departed Edwards Air Force Base at 8:17 a.m. on Sep. 21, 2012, to begin a four-and-a-half hour flyover of northern California and the Los Angeles basin. (U.S. Air Force photo/Jet Fabara)
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Space Shuttle Enterprise, with Fullerton and astronaut Fred Haise on board, soars above the NASA 747 carrier aircraft during the first free flight of the shuttle approach and landing tests at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., in Aug. 1977. (NASA photo)
Space shuttle Discovery's last trip
The space shuttle Discovery, sitting on top of a modified NASA Boeing 747 aircraft, flies over Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., April 17, 2012. The Discovery made its final voyage to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Val Gempis)