NASA's space shuttle Discovery takes last flight

A crowd of a few hundred people gathered today at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., at the NASA Ames Research Center to view the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. 

The Exploration Center at NASA Ames was open to the public for a special prelaunch program celebrating the history of Discovery, the first of NASA's three remaining shuttles to be retired. 

Guest speakers for today's historic launch included Sid Sun, who discussed the life sciences experiments that are traveling aboard Discovery, and Matt Deans (seen here answering students' questions), who talked about Ames' role in the development of Robonaut and other space-exploration robotics.

Posted in: Space and outer Space,Technology