Space shuttle Discovery was sent to the launch pad for the last time.

Nasa moved Discovery out of its hangar. The 3.5-mile trip to the pad at Cape Canaveral was bittersweet for the space agency, which has only two shuttle missions remaining.

Discovery is set to lift off on November 1 for the International Space Station.

Endeavour will follow in February to wrap up 30 years of shuttle flight.

Scores of shuttle workers and their families gathered to watch Discovery take its last ride to the pad on top of a giant transporter.

Several hundred contract employees will lose their jobs on October 1 in a continuing wave of lay-offs.

Nasa’s future is uncertain because of disagreement in Washington over the next rocketships.