The space shuttle Endeavour, atop NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flies over Houston, Texas in this September 19, 2012 NASA handout photo. The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner is flying Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era. [REUTERS/Sheir Locke/NASA/Handout] PHOTOS: The best Reuters photography from the past 24 hours
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The space shuttle Endeavour, atop NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flies over Houston, Texas in this September 19, 2012 NASA handout photo. The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner is flying Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center.

This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era. [REUTERS/Sheir Locke/NASA/Handout]

PHOTOS: The best Reuters photography from the past 24 hours

The lower Manhattan skyline is seen behind the Space Shuttle Enterprise, being transported on a barge to dock at Weeks Marine in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, for a four-day journey to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York June 3, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz PHOTOS: Enterprise on the Hudson
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The lower Manhattan skyline is seen behind the Space Shuttle Enterprise, being transported on a barge to dock at Weeks Marine in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, for a four-day journey to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York June 3, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

PHOTOS: Enterprise on the Hudson

The space shuttle Enterprise took off on Friday from Washington piggybacked atop a Boeing 747 bound for New York, where it was set to make a dramatic flight along the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty. The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a 15-nation project, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station’s 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit. NASA has been flying the shuttles to cities around the nation for display. READ MORE: Enterprise takes off atop New York-bound jet
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The space shuttle Enterprise took off on Friday from Washington piggybacked atop a Boeing 747 bound for New York, where it was set to make a dramatic flight along the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty.

The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a 15-nation project, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station’s 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit.

NASA has been flying the shuttles to cities around the nation for display.

READ MORE: Enterprise takes off atop New York-bound jet

The Space Shuttle Enterprise rides atop a NASA modified 747 plane over New York April 27, 2012. The Space Shuttle Enterprise officially arrived in New York to be placed at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, [REUTERS/Lucas Jackson] 
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The Space Shuttle Enterprise rides atop a NASA modified 747 plane over New York April 27, 2012. The Space Shuttle Enterprise officially arrived in New York to be placed at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, [REUTERS/Lucas Jackson] 

Space Shuttle Enterprise flew by the Reuters building in New York City on Friday morning. (taken with Instagram)
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Space Shuttle Enterprise flew by the Reuters building in New York City on Friday morning. (taken with Instagram)

The space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified NASA 747 aircraft, takes off headed for its final home at The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 17, 2012. [REUTERS/Joe Skipper] 
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The space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified NASA 747 aircraft, takes off headed for its final home at The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 17, 2012. [REUTERS/Joe Skipper] 

The space shuttle Discovery is shown attached to a modified NASA 747 aircraft at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 16, 2012. Discovery is expected to be flown to its final home at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia on April 17. [REUTERS/Joe Skipper]
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The space shuttle Discovery is shown attached to a modified NASA 747 aircraft at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 16, 2012. Discovery is expected to be flown to its final home at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia on April 17. [REUTERS/Joe Skipper]