The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy started its final voyage this week with an end destination set for Brownsville, Texas. The ship had been out of service since 2007 and spent the past nearly 18 years at the Navy’s Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.

The 1,052-foot-long ship, which has been housed at the U.S. Navy’s Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility since 2008, is making its final voyage on the way to the scrap heap.

The retired USS John F. Kennedy​ aircraft carrier will embark on its final voyage after spending nearly two decades docked in Philadelphia.

The ex-USS John F. Kennedy, a decommissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, will travel down the Delaware Bay Thursday on its way to Texas for dismantling.

The retired U.S. Navy vessel will head to Brownsville, Texas, on a two-week journey that will end with the aircraft carrier's dismantling.

"Commissioned on Sept. 7, 1968, CV 67 was the first Navy ship to be named John F. Kennedy and was the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier built by the U.S. Navy," Naval Sea Systems Public Affairs said in a news release.

"Big John," as it was affectionately nicknamed, was decommissioned in 2007 and has been in Philadelphia ever since.

The aircraft carrier, which has been docked in South Philadelphia since 2008, will make its exit through the Delaware River.

The USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier sets off for its final voyage to a Texas scrapyard after decades of naval service.

Instead of preservation as a museum ship—which might allow certain foreign visitors to learn too much about existing aircraft carriers—the USS John F. Kennedy is being sent to the scrap heap.

An aircraft carrier is leaving its home at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia to make its final journey on Thursday morning.