A specially modified Boeing jet has begun to transport the US space shuttle Discovery back to Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force base in California tens days ago on its return to Earth at the end of the first NASA shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster in which seven astronauts died.
The US space agency has said the shuttle will remain grounded until at least March 2006 because engineers need more time to fix the problem of foam insulation peeling off the craft's external fuel tank during launch.
