The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has no intention right now of shipping off a centerpiece of its Chantilly facility to Texas.
The federal budget bill that squeaked through the Republican-led U.S. Senate on Tuesday (July 1) includes a provision directing NASA to transfer the Discovery space shuttle from its longtime home at the Udvar-Hazy Center to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, allocating $85 million toward transportation and construction costs.
However, the Smithsonian Institution asserts that it has full ownership of the shuttle, suggesting NASA would have no authority to relocate it even if the proposal makes it to the final budget package intact.
“Our position is that the Discovery is staying right where it is,” Air and Space Museum Director Chris Browne told the Washington Business Journal yesterday (Wednesday).
NASA transferred the Discovery to the Smithsonian in April 2012, just over a year after its final flight on March 9, 2011. The shuttle, which first launched in 1984 and flew more missions than any other orbiter, has been on display in the Udvar-Hazy Center’s James S. McDonnell Space Hangar ever since.
The transfer agreement gave the Smithsonian ownership of the shuttle “in perpetuity,” making it part of the independent nonprofit’s collections, not government property, Browne told the WBJ.
In a statement to FFXnow, the Air and Space Museum described Discovery’s presence in the collection as a reflection of the Smithsonian’s “core function as a research facility and object library”:
National Air and Space Museum curators choose objects so that, generations from now, when people want to know about the history of aviation and spaceflight, the Museum will have the artifacts that answer those research questions. Preserving Discovery’s material history as completely as possible was paramount in the acquisition process. Discovery belongs in the national collection available for everyone to see free of charge.
The proposal to move the Discovery to NASA’s campus in Houston stems from a bill introduced in April by Republican Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, who argued that the shuttle rightfully belongs in Houston, given “the city’s integral role” in the space shuttle program.
“It is clear political favors trumped common sense and fairness when the Obama administration blocked the Space City from receiving the recognition it deserves,” Cornyn said in a press release after filing the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act.”
Since getting installed in Chantilly, though, the Discovery has become a vital “centerpiece” of the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center, which “draws upwards of a million visitors a year,” according to Fairfax CEO and President Barry Biggar.
“The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is one of Fairfax County’s most invaluable cultural assets, but also a vital economic driver,” Biggar said. “… We look forward to many more years of the Discovery inspiring visitors and locals who visit the museum here in Fairfax County and learning about the legacy it has left for all Americans to explore.”
Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, quickly came out in opposition to the Texans’ proposal, with Kaine calling it “a significant waste of taxpayer resources.”
The Smithsonian estimates that relocating the Discovery to Houston would cost $325 million, including the costs of transporting the vehicle and constructing a new facility that can house it, Northern Virginia Magazine reported, citing documents given to Congress. A total cost estimate of $300-$400 million was confirmed to the Houston Business Journal.
The Senate’s budget package states that at least $5 million of the allocated funds must cover transportation costs — far below the $50 to $55 million that the Smithsonian says would actually be needed, per Northern Virginia Magazine.
On top of objecting to the transfer based on the cost to taxpayers, Kaine noted in a statement shared with FFXnow that the Discovery’s new home would charge admission, unlike the Udvar-Hazy Center:
What kind of message does it send to the American people when Republicans cut Medicaid and nutrition assistance funding that millions of people rely on, while simultaneously authorizing $85 million in taxpayer dollars to move a space shuttle halfway across the country? This ridiculous transfer would make Americans pay a $30 fee to view a shuttle that they can see for free right now in Chantilly — and goes to show how woefully out of touch President Trump and congressional Republicans’ Hurt People, Kill Jobs, and Spike the Debt to Reward the Rich Act is.
Kaine filed an unsuccessful amendment on Monday (June 30) seeking to block the “space vehicle transfer” and take the allocated funds out of the budget.
Located at 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway, the Udvar-Hazy Center has free admission but charges $15 for parking. Space Center Houston, which is operated by the nonprofit Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, charges $30 to $40 in admission fees for anyone 12 and older with slightly lower rates for younger children and seniors.
Passed on a 51-50 vote with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking a tie, the Senate’s budget bill would fund tax cuts and billions of dollars in additional spending on immigration enforcement by slashing Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other safety-net programs. NASA is also among the federal agencies facing sizable budget cuts.
The budget package has now returned to the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Republican majority is working to win over holdouts in the hopes of meeting a Fourth of July deadline sought by President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported.
