Smithsonian would lose space shuttle to Texas under GOP bill
The GOP spending and tax bill would move the Space Shuttle Discovery from its current home at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum annex, the Udvar-Hazy Center, in Virginia to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Moving Discovery was the goal of legislation brought earlier this year by Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who said in April that Houston's long ties to the space program should have been recognized with a space shuttle when four were retired by NASA in 2010.
Space Center Houston, where the shuttle is expected to be put on display, is the official visitors center of Johnson Space Center in Houston. It is already home to a replica of the Space Shuttle Independence, formerly known as Explorer.
The bill being considered by the House this week sets aside $85 million to relocate and build a facility to house and display a space vehicle that meets three criteria: it has flown into space, has carried astronauts; and is selected by an organization picked by NASA's administrator.
There are only four space vehicles that meet the first two criteria: Enterprise, which belongs to the Intrepid Museum in New York; Endeavor, which belongs to the California Science Center in Los Angeles; Atlantis, which is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex, and Discovery at the Smithsonian.
Only Atlantis and Discovery are still owned by the U.S. government. NASA owns Atlantis. Discovery was gifted to the Smithsonian Institution, a quasi-government agency, in 2012.
It is highly unusual for items of national importance to be removed from the Smithsonian. Discovery was the third operational orbiter to fly in space. It entered service in 1984 and retired from spaceflight as the oldest and most utilized orbiter in 2011. It launched the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Smithsonian's estimate to Congress was that it would cost between $300 million and $400 million of taxpayer dollars to move Discovery across the country.
Last week, at an event at Space Center Houston, Cornyn said Houston's role in the space program is deserving of the Discovery and that the space shuttle should "come back home," although it wasn't manufactured in Houston, nor did it launch from Houston. The Johnson Space Center served as Mission Control for the space shuttle program.
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