After calling Florida's Space Coast home for three decades, space shuttle Discovery has left the Kennedy Space Center for the final time.

Riding on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet, the same Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that first brought Discovery to Florida in 1983, NASA's most traveled shuttle took off at 7 a.m. Tuesday from the KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility, bound for its new home in Washington.

The shuttle-jet combo took a leisurely spin around the Washington Monument, the White House and the Capitol in a high-flying salute to the nation's capital before finally landing at Dulles International Airport shortly after 11 a.m.

From there, Discovery will be towed Thursday to its permanent installation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

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One final flyover

After the pair took off, the jet and space shuttle Discovery headed south toward Cocoa Beach for everyone along the Space Coast to see, and then turned over Patrick Air Force Base, back up the coast and past the Kennedy Space Center one last time before heading north.

Thousands of people packed Brevard County's beaches up and down the Space Coast to get one last glimpse of Discovery in the air.

Many of them gathered along Cocoa Beach, a once popular spot to watch the space shuttles launch over the water and into orbit.

Nearly 2,000 people, including former shuttle workers, VIPs, tourists and journalists, gathered along the old shuttle landing strip to see Discovery off. A cheer went up as the plane taxied down the runway and soared into a clear sky.

Seeing Discovery leave the Space Coast for the final time brought back a lot of memories and emotions for the folks who flocked to the beaches Tuesday morning.

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What's next?

Discovery -- the fleet leader with 39 orbital missions -- is the first of the three retired space shuttles to head to a museum, taking the place of the shuttle prototype Enterprise at the Smithsonian. Enterprise will be moved to New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Shuttle Endeavour will head to the California Science Center, in Los Angeles, in September.

Atlantis is staying in Florida. It will make a short trip to the KSC Visitor Complex in 2013.

NASA ended the shuttle program in 2011 after a 30-year run to focus on destinations beyond low-Earth orbit. Private U.S. companies hope to pick up the slack, beginning with space station cargo and then, hopefully, astronauts.

The first commercial cargo run, by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is set to take place in just another few weeks.

For at least the next three to five years -- until commercial passenger craft are available in the United States -- NASA astronauts will have to continue hitching multimillion-dollar rides on Russian Soyuz capsules to get to the International Space Station.

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.