Enterprise pulls out of the Udvar-Hazy Center to make way for Discovery. (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

With the space shuttle Discovery settling into its new digs at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, for the the current occupant of the hangar-turned-museum at Dulles International Airport, it’s time to go.

Boldly, we assume, as only a ship called Enterprise can do.

Enterprise, the prototype of the space shuttle program but was never fitted for spaceflight, went on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center when it opened in 2003. Today, it is rolling out of the hangar and being prepared for its final voyage.

On Monday, Enterprise will be strapped to the back of the same Boeing 747 that ferried Discovery over Washington earlier this week. To borrow a line from a certain captain, the ship and her history will shortly become the care of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on the West Side of Manhattan, where it will sit on top of the retired aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. From that perch, Enterprise will peer out over the Hudson River, beneath the surface of which certainly lies all sorts of strange new worlds.

DCist correspondent Pablo Maurer will have a longer writeup and more photos from today’s shuttle exchange at the Udvar-Hazy Center.