Dawn breaks revealing the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft rolling down runway 15 toward an takeoff at 7 a.m. EDT.

Dawn breaks at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, revealing the Shuttle
Carrier Aircraft and its piggybacked cargo, space shuttle Discovery, rolling down runway 15 toward an on-time
takeoff at 7 a.m. EDT.

The duo is beginning its ferry flight to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia that also includes a flyby of the Space Coast and Washington, D.C. Discovery is leaving Kennedy after more than 28 years of service beginning with its arrival on the space coast Nov. 9, 1983. Discovery is set to move to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., on April 19 where it will be placed on public display. For more information on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, visit http://www.nasa .gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-013- DFRC.html. For more information on shuttle transition and retirement activities, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Tim Powers and Tim Terry