One month after Congress passed a federal budget bill with a provision directing NASA to transfer a space shuttle to Texas, the space agency remains tight-lipped on any impending relocation plans.
The bill, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, requires acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy to identify a space vehicle to transfer to a NASA field center. The requirements stipulate that the ship must have flown into space, carried astronauts, and is selected with the concurrence of a nonprofit entity designated by the administrator.
While a specific shuttle isn’t named, Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz from Texas had lobbied for the Discovery space shuttle — NASA’s longest-flying orbiter — to be moved to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The direction to transfer the shuttle has set up a showdown between NASA and the Smithsonian, which owns the shuttle and has said it has no intention to relinquish the vehicle currently on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.
That deadline passed earlier this month. NASA told FFXnow that Duffy has identified a shuttle but didn’t confirm which one.
Cornyn, however, said in a release the “Congressional intent of the law makes clear that this is aimed at the movement of Space Shuttle Discovery.”
In an email to FFXnow, NASA repeated a line it’s shared with multiple outlets.
“The acting Administrator has made an identification,” a spokesperson said. “We have no further public statement at this time.”
Outside of Discovery, other vehicles that meet the criteria include the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which is housed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the Endeavour at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
The budget reconciliation bill states that the identified “space vehicle” should be transferred within 18 months of the provision’s enactment.
However, some members of Congress are looking to block the move by prohibiting the use of federal funds allocated to the Smithsonian from being used. A markup bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee is currently awaiting a vote by the full chamber, which has been in recess since July 22.
The local grassroots campaign KeepTheShuttle said the fight is likely to pick back up again once Congress returns from recess in September.
“Once Congress returns from the August recess, fiscal year 2026 appropriations will dominate the agenda,” campaign organizers said. “KeepTheShuttle is already working with allies in Congress to support measures that will block funding from the relocation, and we will continue to mobilize our growing community of one thousand supporters to help make that happen.”
