5d ago

“It’s a heist”: Senator calls out Texas for trying to steal shuttle from Smithsonian

arstechnica.com “It’s a heist”: Senator calls out Texas for trying to steal shuttle from Smithsonian

A political effort to remove space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian and place it on display in Texas encountered some pushback.

"In the reconciliation bill, Texas entered $85 million to move the space shuttle from the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, to Texas. Eighty-five million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but it is not nearly what's necessary for this to be accomplished," Durbin said.

Citing research by NASA and the Smithsonian, Durbin said that the total was closer to $305 million and that did not include the estimated $178 million needed to build a facility to house and display Discovery once in Houston.

Furthermore, it was unclear if Congress even has the right to remove an artifact, let alone a space shuttle, from the Smithsonian's collection. The Washington, DC, institution, which serves as a trust instrumentality of the US, maintains that it owns Discovery. The paperwork signed by NASA in 2012 transferred "all rights, interest, title, and ownership" for the spacecraft to the Smithsonian.

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“It’s a heist”: Senator calls out Texas for trying to steal shuttle from Smithsonian

arstechnica.com /space/2025/07/its-a-heist-senator-calls-out-texas-for-trying-to-steal-shuttle-from-smithsonian/

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I mean, Houston did not receive one of the four space shuttles for public display when the shuttle program ended in 2011, which was sort of a raw deal. That largely came out of the Obama-Era politics of Texans pissing in the Congressional punch bowl and reaping what they sowed.
But now Congress is stacked with Texas-friendly Republicans. I would not be surprised Randy Weber (TX-14) or Troy Nehls (TX-22) or even Senators Cornyn or Cruz pulled some strings to get a Shuttle back down here.
Furthermore, it was unclear if Congress even has the right to remove an artifact
I doubt that'll slow anyone in the current administration down.
- I mean, Houston did not receive one of the four space shuttles for public display when the shuttle program ended in 2011, which was sort of a raw deal.
  I don't think they won the bid, isn't Texas all about pulling up their bootstraps and going for it?
  
  I don’t think they won the bid
  There was no bid. These were given out to Congressional Reps in exchange for their support of the Obama Era economic aid packages.
  isn’t Texas all about pulling up their bootstraps and going for it?
  No. Texas is about taking enormous subsidies from the government to not grow alfalfa, to not drill for oil, and to not build a wall on the southern border. Then we spend the rest of the day complaining that we're not as popular as California.
  
  What was the competition then? I assumed it was a bid.
  "This is not a transfer. It's a heist," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) during a budget markup hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. "A heist by Texas because they lost a competition 12 years ago."
  
  From what I remember they were offered one but they already had the trainer still on the grounds, and didn’t have the money for new space or upkeep of that kind of artifact near the ocean when they already had a Saturn V. They are still building the space for the one in California.

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