The White House is reportedly seeking to move forward with a planned relocation of the Discovery space shuttle from its longtime home in Chantilly to Texas.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has requested that the Smithsonian Institution work with NASA on preparing to transfer the orbiter from the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center to the Space Center Houston Museum in Texas, according to a letter sent to members of Congress earlier this week.
In the Sept. 30 letter, whose authenticity was confirmed to FFXnow by a person with knowledge of the situation, the Smithsonian reported that it and NASA have been asked to begin preparations for the transfer by “verifying the actual costs associated with the move.”
Per the letter, both the Smithsonian and NASA have estimated that it will cost at least $120 million to $150 million to relocate the Discovery, not including the expenses of building a new facility in Texas to house the vehicle.
In addition to reasserting its sole legal ownership of the space shuttle, the Smithsonian warned again that moving the Discovery could require taking it apart and putting it back together, a process that could irreparably damage it.
“While an engineering study will be necessary due to the size and weight of the space vehicle, both NASA and the Smithsonian believe that Discovery will have to undergo significant disassembly to be moved,” the Smithsonian said. “Discovery is the most intact shuttle orbiter of the NASA program, and we remain concerned that disassembling the vehicle will destroy its historical value.”
More from the letter:
The Smithsonian has been asked by OMB to work with NASA to prepare to move the Discovery space shuttle to Houston, TX, within the 18 months specified in the reconciliation bill signed into law on July 4, 2025. The bill does not specifically mention Discovery as the designated vehicle for relocation, and its terms could include any number of space vehicles, but the administration is interpreting the law as sufficiently specific to move forward with the transfer of Discovery. The Smithsonian and NASA have been asked to begin by verifying the actual costs associated with the move.
…
NASA and Smithsonian agree that the minimal cost estimate to move Discovery is in the range of $120 million to $150 million, not taking into account the costs associated with building a new facility in Texas. NASA has cost estimates for each phase of a move.
As we have previously shared, NASA transferred “all rights, title, interest and ownership” of the shuttle to the Smithsonian. We remain concerned about the unprecedented nature of a removal of an object from the national collection, and that we would be causing damage to the most intact orbiter from the space shuttle program. In particular, irreparable damage to the shuttle tiles will occur in disassembly, which were critical to the shuttle’s unique reusability. Viewing and preserving this artifact at the Smithsonian allows scholars and the public to appreciate the story of how Americans were the first to develop a reusable system to transport humans to space, laying the groundwork to move humans back to the Moon and on to Mars.
While she didn’t comment directly on the letter, a spokesperson for the Air and Space Museum confirmed that the OMB asked it to work with NASA on cost estimates.
“The National Air and Space Museum has been asked by OMB to work with NASA on cost estimates for moving Discovery, including a description of the condition of the orbiter upon delivery,” the spokesperson said. “We have no further statement at this time.”
When asked about the Smithsonian’s letter, the OMB characterized it as “an update to Congress on the status of planning” following the allocation of $85 million for the space shuttle’s transfer in the federal budget reconciliation bill signed by President Donald Trump on July 4.
“In other words, this isn’t some sort of scoop. People have known about this requirement since passage of the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act],” the OMB said, referring to the legislation’s official name.
An inquiry to NASA received an automated reply noting that the agency “is currently closed due to a lapse in government funding,” so the inbox isn’t being monitored.
Opponents of shuttle transfer hold firm
The Smithsonian’s letter went to Congress, including members of its appropriations committee, just hours before the federal government shut down, the result of an ongoing stand-off between Senate Democrats and Republicans over an appropriations bill to fund most government agencies in the new fiscal year.
Among other priorities, Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who both received the Smithsonian’s recent letter, had advocated for a new budget package to include a provision prohibiting federal funds from being used to transfer the Discovery. Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) also backed that proposal.
“Moving the Space Shuttle Discovery will waste taxpayer dollars, risk permanent damage to the shuttle, and make it harder for people to see it, because the facility in Houston — unlike the Smithsonian – charges visitors an entrance fee,” Kaine said in a statement to FFXnow. “I’m going to keep working to block the move of this shuttle, including any funding that could be used for its relocation.”
The reconciliation bill passed in July gave NASA’s administrator, a role currently filled by Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, 30 days to “identify” an unnamed “space vehicle” for relocation and 18 months to complete the transfer.
NASA confirmed in August that Duffy identified a vehicle but hasn’t publicly stated which one. Though the legislation didn’t name a vehicle or destination for the transfer, it has been widely assumed to be the Space Shuttle Discovery based on lobbying by Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who have argued that Houston is the retired orbiter’s rightful home.
The possibility that Discovery would be disassembled and relocated came as a surprise to Joe Stief, a local space enthusiast and founder of the Keep the Shuttle campaign that has rallied support for the Air and Space Museum’s claim to Discovery among both Congress and Fairfax County’s elected leaders.
Based on how it was described to him by a former NASA engineer, the process would involve separating the shuttle into at least six different components, including the crew hold, the cargo bay, the tail, the two wings, and the mid and aft sections, where the engines are located. The thousands of black tiles and white textile blankets that provide thermal protection for the vehicle would need to be removed.
For at least some components, it might not be possible to restore them once they’re removed, because the space shuttles weren’t designed to be taken apart.
“It would be irreparable damage,” Stief said. “So, that’s why the disassembly is such a frightening option, frankly.”
Encouraging community members concerned about Discovery’s future to contact their representatives in Congress, Stief says his campaign has received support from other D.C.-area residents as well as people from other parts of the country and even the world, including “a number of former NASA employees.”
He’s confident in the Smithsonian’s case to keep Discovery at Udvar-Hazy from a legal standpoint but fears the independent organization may be pressured into compliance, given that more than half its funding (about 62%) comes from the federal government.
“It’s not difficult to envision a scenario where they might be forced to do something that they publicly said they don’t want to do,” Stief said. “… If you set this precedent where a couple of elected officials, a couple of congressmen, senators, can force the Smithsonian to give up a part of their collection for some cheap political points back home, that opens a whole can of worms, where anyone from red states, blue states — it doesn’t matter — they could do the same in the future.”
This story has been updated with a response from the Office of Management and Budget.
