NASA approves Ted Cruz’s plan to move a space shuttle to Houston, setting up a fight with the Smithsonian

NASA has selected a space shuttle still to be appointed to move to Houston, conceding a long -standing offer of Senators in Texas to host one of the emblematic vehicles. If the vehicle chosen is a discovery – which is probably – the Smithsonian, which houses the vehicle, can fight.

The Trump administration included the resettlement of the shuttle in the bill on budget reconciliation, signed it on July 4 and set aside $ 85 million for the moving and construction of a new installation in Houston. At the time, the Senators of Texas Ted Cruz and John Cornyn had their eyes on the discovery of the space shuttle, which is exposed to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Virginia since 2012.

This week, a spokesperson for NASA said that the agency’s acting administrator Sean Duffy had identified one of the retired shuttles to display at Space Center Houston, without revealing which one, according to Collectspace. It is not clear why the identity of the shuttle is retained or if NASA has received the approval of the Smithsonian to move the discovery.

“There is no better place for one of the NASA space shuttles to be displayed than Space City, and I thank the acting administrator Duffy for having rectified the error of the Obama administration and I can’t wait to welcome this emblematic orbiter in his legitimate house,” Cornyn wrote in a press release.

Cruz and Cornyn presented the law for the resettlement of Discovery in April, calling NASA and the Smithsonian to develop a plan to move the discovery. He provided no less than $ 5 million to move the shuttle to his new house, the remaining $ 80 million allocated to the construction of a new display installation at Space Center Houston. The Smithsonian, on the other hand, argues that it would cost between 300 and $ 400 million to move the massive spacecraft across the country. It is also worried that the shuttle is damaged during the trip to Texas.

For the discovery to be moved, NASA requires the blessing of the Smithsonian, because the institution has acquired the agency shuttle and is now considered its owner. In response to the senators ‘attempt to move the discovery, the Smithsonian reaffirmed its property of the shuttle in a press release which said: “NASA has transferred all rights, title, interest and property’ from the shuttle to the Smithsonian.” The shuttle is “part of the mission and the basic function of the National Air and Space Museum as a research installment and the standard of the national air and space collection”, according to the press release.

Three other shuttles are also exhibited in different parts of the country: the company is at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York; Atlantis is at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; And Endeavour is currently configured for the display at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles.

Given the long -standing story of the state with the shuttle program, Texas feels naturally excluded. The city of Houston in particular. While all the launches of the space shuttle have taken place from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, more than 100 missions were managed from the control room of the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. After the end of the shuttle program in 2011, NASA selected museums across the country to display its emblematic spacecraft. The agency’s process was strongly criticized, in particular by the legislators of Texas, who described it as “snub of the Houston shuttle”.

Fourteen years later, the Texans still live for this shuttle. The bill does not specify which retired vehicles would move to Space Center Houston, only that it stole in space and transported astronauts in orbit (that is to say that it is a real shuttle and not a model). Although NASA is still in the possession of Atlantis, the accent seems to be on discovery. “We continue to work on the basis that the identified shuttle is the discovery and do our preparations for his arrival and providing him with a world class house,” said Keesha Bullock, communications and marketing manager at Space Center Houston, in a press release, according to Collectspace.

The question of whether the Smithsonian will abandon his shuttle is always to be debated.