Confusion reigns as to what shuttle will be moved to Houston, if any
Despite amendments in the reconciliation bill that said the space shuttle Discovery held by the Smithsonian in DC would be transferred to Houston for display, it appears there is uncertainty and confusion as to what shuttle will be moved, above and beyond the Smithsonian’s opposition to this transfer.
The legislation that required Duffy to choose a “space vehicle” that had “flown in space” and “carried people” did not specify an orbiter by name, but the language in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump signed into law last month was inspired by Cornyn and fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s bill to relocate Discovery. “The acting Administrator has made an identification. We have no further public statement at this time,” said a spokesperson for Duffy in response to an inquiry by collectSPACE.
It appears Duffy’s options are limited. NASA no longer has any title or ownership rights to the shuttles held by the Smithsonian and the California Science Center in Los Angeles. It owns the only remaining shuttle, Atlantis, which it has on display in Florida, but moving that to Houston would entail big political warfare.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Despite amendments in the reconciliation bill that said the space shuttle Discovery held by the Smithsonian in DC would be transferred to Houston for display, it appears there is uncertainty and confusion as to what shuttle will be moved, above and beyond the Smithsonian’s opposition to this transfer.
The legislation that required Duffy to choose a “space vehicle” that had “flown in space” and “carried people” did not specify an orbiter by name, but the language in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump signed into law last month was inspired by Cornyn and fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s bill to relocate Discovery. “The acting Administrator has made an identification. We have no further public statement at this time,” said a spokesperson for Duffy in response to an inquiry by collectSPACE.
It appears Duffy’s options are limited. NASA no longer has any title or ownership rights to the shuttles held by the Smithsonian and the California Science Center in Los Angeles. It owns the only remaining shuttle, Atlantis, which it has on display in Florida, but moving that to Houston would entail big political warfare.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I am not aware of the total ins and outs of this matter, but heard an analysis of the actual move of the original shuttle quoted, given there is no longer an aircraft able to fly it, would require many more dollars (than $85,00000?) just to fix infrastructure to move the thing, never mind establishing a suitable resting place… Plus all this argument over the ownership, etc, etc…
I was admittedly very tired when listening to this news analysis, but it struck me as a thinly thought out idea and the finances allocated by folks without a clue.
Don’t shoot me down if I got something wrong.. but ever in my dozing state, I thought ” this seems like a stupid idea”
Hummmm. Couldn’t Elon Musk, under the language of the OBBB, just give Texas a retired Dragon capsule? At the end of its active life, it will have “flown in space and carried people.” Also, in the spirit of DOGE, it would also save the government a heck of a lot of cash. Just a thought.
PS — Lee S Awake or asleep, moving Discovery is still a stupid idea.
Texas already HAS an orbiter shaped contraption.
From the article:
“Home” is an interesting word for them to use. Not only did no Space Shuttle live in Texas, none ever visited it. The same is true for New York, until they stuck one on an aircraft carrier. An aircraft carrier! What an inappropriate place for a Space Shuttle.
New York never deserved a Space Shuttle, and more: the city does not take care of the one they have, damaging it during shipping, putting it under a mere tent, and the tent being so weak that it collapsed onto the Orbiter during a storm.
Taking the Shuttle from the museum in which how many millions of visitors per year see it to a place where how many dozens of people per year would see it does not make sense. This is something so stupid that only Congress could think of doing it. Certainly no rocket scientist would want to take something like this from the Smithsonian — not just a world-class museum but the museum against which all world-class museums are measured.
The California Science Center in Los Angeles is not so far from where the Orbiters were made, so the workers and their friends and families get to go see what they made, parts and pieces that they touched (same for the workers at Kennedy). In addition, the Science Center has an External Tank and plans to mount them together vertically so that visitors can see what they looked like on the pad. There is a unique display of a Space Shuttle. The Science Center has also placed Endeavor inside a strong protective climate controlled building, protecting their Orbiter much better than New York protects theirs.
Really? No better place? With an attitude like that, what other NASA artifacts is Space City going to demand be taken back from the Smithsonian? Skylab?
A visitor center that no one has ever heard of is considering itself to be a world-class home? Better than the Smithsonian? Better than the Air and Space museum that beats every other air museum and space museum on the planet? Really? Chutzpah.
One has to wonder: if Houston deserves a Space Shuttle, if there is no better place for one of NASA’s Shuttle Orbiters, then why was Houston snubbed in the first place in favor of an unsuited New York City aircraft carrier? Aircraft carrier. What were they thinking? Once a decade they find a new way to mess up their Orbiter.
So now we are supposed to spend a whole bunch of money moving a Space Shuttle Orbiter so that NASA can spend a whole bunch of other money making a building to house it, and the one they want to take is already in a perfectly good building with caring curators (and curatrixes?), restorers and preservers, and docents, while the one with the haphazard tent on the out-of-place location gets to remain poorly tended. If we must spend a lot of money on this project, then we should rescue the one Orbiter that is facing disaster.
An aircraft carrier. *Sigh*
Edward: The reason New York and California got shuttles over Texas is because Obama was doing favors to states that vote Democrat. There was no way he was going to give Houston a shuttle.
Had the decision been made on merit and logic, Florida, Texas, and California would have gotten shuttles.
Ah, yes. The “reward friends and punish enemies” method of governance.
Why do what is best for the governed when your power lets you do what keeps yourself in power. Isn’t there a word for that kind of government?