NASA~ENDEAVOUR, DISCOVERY and ATLANTIS last flights~

[Duchess]

Riding piggyback atop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, the space shuttle Endeavour left its Florida home port for the last time on Wednesday and headed to California to begin a new mission as a museum exhibit.

The shuttle landed at Ellington Field in Houston for the night before it will continue the cross-country trek on Thursday.

After waiting two days for weather to clear, the specially modified carrier jet sped down the Kennedy Space Center runway shortly after dawn on Wednesday, the first leg of a planned three-day trek to the West Coast.

'There's sadness to see it go, but the space shuttle program had to end for us to move on to the next thing,' said astronaut Greg Chamitoff.

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