Space shuttle Endeavour embarked on its new life as a museum piece Wednesday, leaving behind its NASA home in Florida and heading west on the last ferry flight of its kind.
Next up on its itinerary: Austin.
NASA's youngest shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center at sunrise Wednesday bolted to the top of a jumbo jet, arriving to excited crowds in Houston hours later.
Wednesday evening, NASA announced that Endeavour will make a low pass over downtown Austin near the Capitol between 7:30 and 8 a.m. today after leaving Houston's Ellington Field about 7 a.m.
Once past Austin, the plane will stop to refuel in El Paso about 9:30 Central time, and then it will continue west, making low-level flybys over the White Sands Missile Range and NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, as well as Tucson, Ariz.
The plane is expected to land at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California about noon Pacific time.
It will then make a farewell tour around California on Friday before landing at Los Angeles International Airport.
In mid-October, Endeavour will be transported down city streets to the California Science Center, its permanent home.
In Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Wednesday, hundreds of people — astronauts, space center workers, tourists and journalists — gathered at the runway to bid Endeavour farewell following two days of rain delays.
Crowds also lined the nearby beaches as the shuttle swooped in and out of low clouds in one final show.
"You know what? I am feeling a tremendous amount of pride," said astronaut Kay Hire, who flew aboard Endeavour two years ago.
Several hours later, onlookers cheered as Endeavour flew over its landing place in Houston, not far from the home of NASA's Mission Control.
The jet carrying Endeavour landed a short time later at Ellington Field.
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