For most people, April 17 was memorable if only because that was the deadline for filing their federal income tax returns. But in D.C. and the surrounding areas, we’ll remember April 17, 2012 as the day we saw the Space Shuttle Discovery.
With NASA’s conclusion of the Space Shuttle program after 30 years of exploring near-Earth orbits, the space agency distributed the retired orbiters to museums around the country. The Discovery, the third vessel to enter into service, was gifted to the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport. But first, it would have to actually get there.
Strapped to the roof of a Boeing 747, the shuttle made several passes over Washington at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. It was soaring. It was majestic. It was a little touch of the innately human desire to explore strange new worlds and, well, you know the rest. (Strictly speaking, Space Shuttle Enterprise, a prototype that never left the atmosphere, wound up in New York.) When the shuttle came, we asked for photos, and you came through, in epic fashion.
By a comfortable 30,000-click margin, DCist’s most popular post of 2012 was of the “Spacegasm,” the brisk April morning when we all stopped to gawk at our brush with the possibilities of exploring outer space. The gallery collected 142,828 clicks, but that wasn’t it for Discovery. Readers also enjoyed reading about just how that big, lumbering shuttle sat atop it’s jumbo-jet escort, as well as when Discovery finally arrived at its final hangar at the Udvar-Hazy Center.
And then there were the people who were thrilled by the flyover, but mistakenly thought that instead of Discovery, they were watching the final flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. That was, um, a bit awkward.
In total, people clicked on the shuttle 163,508 times.
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The quadcopter the day of its ill-fated flight.
Some people in D.C. also had fun playing with quadcopters and other flying drones, most notably longtime troublemaker Adam Eidinger, the owner of the now-shuttered Capitol Hemp. Eidinger’s quadcopter—a $700 device he built himself—crashed-landed after taking off from Adams Morgan one September day. It was eventually recovered just south of Meridian Hill Park a few weeks later. But the real rub came in the interim: While searching for his lost drone, Eidinger was reminded of a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that prohibits remote-controlled aircraft from hovering in the skies above D.C.
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Not all aviation news was so sour, though. We caught a preview of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner, the company’s newest long-range commercial jet. The new craft is lighter, sleeker and more environmentally efficient than its predecessors like the 767 and 777 and is capable of fitting in the far-flung airport gates that Airbus’s oversized A380 can’t.
Inside, the 787 is lit by warm, nonintrusive lighting, windows with adjustable tinting and spacious lavatories—even in economy class. But that was the prototype model. The Dreamliner, after years of delays, finally entered service last year, with United Airlines as the first domestic carrier to use the craft. It’s only a matter of time before they take Boeing’s smooth new ride and turn it into an uncomfortable shitshow in the sky.
