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NASA Sends Jets Over D.C. Area Ahead Of Discovery

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA is sending two T-38 training jets over the Washington area on test flights as the space agency prepares to deliver the recently retired space shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian this month.

NASA says the flights Thursday morning are training and photographic flights. The jets will fly about 1,500 feet above Washington to photograph the area.

Discovery is set to arrive April 17 on the back of a Boeing 747.

It is expected to arrive by mid-morning and fly over parts of the Washington area.

The shuttle will be formally delivered to the Smithsonian on April 19 in a ceremony and four-day festival at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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