The Smithsonian Institution is resisting an effort from Texas lawmakers to transport the space shuttle Discovery from a Virginia museum to Houston, home of Mission Control, in a battle framed by the cost.
Texas GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz included in the reconciliation law a provision that would authorize the relocation of the shuttle from its current display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., to a site near Houston’s Johnson Space Center, which Cornyn described in a statement as “righting this egregious wrong.”
Entering service in 1984, Discovery was the third space shuttle orbiter to fly in space and became the most utilized one, spending a total of 365 days in space, according to the Smithsonian. After the shuttle was retired in 2011, it was transferred to the Smithsonian in April 2012 after a delivery flight over the nation’s capital.
