The space shuttle Discovery touched down in Florida yesterday, via Morocco, after its final mission for the International Space Station, marking the end of 27 years of flying for Nasa.
The shuttle spent 365 days in orbit over 39 missions and flew more than 238 million km (148 million miles).
The United States is ending the 30-year-old shuttle programme to plough funds into new spaceships that can travel to the Moon and asteroids. Discovery’s sister ships Endeavour and Atlantis will make their final flights in April and June respectively.
Discovery will now be prepared for display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.