The space shuttle Discovery will take to air one last time during its voyage to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, officials said.

The shuttle is expected to depart Kennedy Space Center April 17 for a non-stop ferry flight atop a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to Dulles International Airport, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution said Thursday.

In the last major processing operation in preparation for the flight, technicians fitted a tail cone over replica main engines installed on the retired shuttle, Florida Today reported.

On April 19 Discovery will be towed into the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

The orbiter prototype Enterprise, currently displayed there, will then have its own ferry flight to New York City for display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Later this year the shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis are scheduled to move to their respective display sites in Los Angeles and on Florida's Space Coast.