NASA Approves Ted Cruz’s Plan to Move a Space Shuttle to Houston, Setting Up a Fight With the Smithsonian

NASA has selected a yet-to-be-named Space Shuttle to move to Houston, conceding to a long-running bid by Texas senators to house one of the iconic vehicles. If the chosen vehicle is Discovery—which it likely is—the Smithsonian, which houses the vehicle, may put up a fight.

The Trump administration included the shuttle’s relocation in the budget reconciliation bill, signed it into law on July 4, and set aside $85 million for the move and construction of a new facility in Houston. At the time, Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn had their eyes on Space Shuttle Discovery, which has been on display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Virginia since 2012.

This week, a NASA spokesperson stated that the agency’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, has identified one of the retired shuttles to be displayed at Space Center Houston, without revealing which one, according to collectSPACE. It’s not clear why the identity of the shuttle is being withheld or if NASA has received the Smithsonian’s approval to relocate Discovery.

“There is no better place for one of NASA’s space shuttles to be displayed than Space City, and I thank Acting Administrator Duffy for rectifying the Obama Administration’s error and look forward to welcoming this iconic orbiter to its rightful home,” Cornyn wrote in a statement.

Cruz and Cornyn first introduced the Discovery Relocation Act in April, calling on NASA and the Smithsonian to develop a plan to relocate Discovery. It provided no less than $5 million to move the Shuttle to its new home, with the remaining $80 million allocated for the construction of a new display facility at Space Center Houston. The Smithsonian, on the other hand, argues it would cost somewhere between $300 and $400 million to move the massive spacecraft across the country. It’s also worried that the shuttle may be damaged during the journey to Texas.

For Discovery to be relocated, NASA does require the Smithsonian’s blessing, since the institution acquired the shuttle from the agency and is now considered its owner. In response to the senators’ bid to relocate Discovery, the Smithsonian reasserted its ownership of the shuttle in a statement that read, “NASA transferred ‘all rights, title, interest and ownership’ of the shuttle to the Smithsonian.” The shuttle is “part of the National Air and Space Museum’s mission and core function as a research facility and the repository of the national air and space collection,” according to the statement.

Three other Shuttles are also on display in different parts of the country: Enterprise is at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York; Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and Endeavour is currently being set up for display at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles.

Given the state’s longstanding history with the shuttle program, Texas understandably feels left out. The city of Houston in particular. While all of the Space Shuttle launches took place from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, more than 100 missions were managed from the control room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. After the Shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA selected museums across the country to display its iconic spacecraft. The agency’s process has been highly criticized, particularly by Texas lawmakers, who referred to it as the “Houston Shuttle Snub.”

Fourteen years later, Texans are still gunning for that shuttle. The bill doesn’t specify which of the retired vehicles would move to Space Center Houston, only that it has flown to space and carried astronauts to orbit (i.e. it’s a real shuttle and not some mockup). Although NASA is still in possession of Atlantis, the focus seems to be on Discovery. “We continue to work on the basis that the shuttle identified is Discovery and proceed with our preparations for its arrival and providing it a world-class home,” Keesha Bullock, chief communications and marketing officer at Space Center Houston, said in a statement, according to collectSPACE.

Whether the Smithsonian will give up its shuttle is still up for debate.