The Space Shuttle Showdown

The Space Shuttle Showdown: Should Discovery Be Taken Apart and Moved to Texas?

The retired Space Shuttle Discovery, a massive and historic spacecraft that flew 39 missions, is currently at the center of a major fight that involves the White House, NASA, the Smithsonian, and members of Congress. The core question is simple: Should the shuttle be moved from its current home in Virginia to a new museum in Texas, even if moving it means taking it apart?  

Why They Want to Move It

Discovery is currently on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The push to move it comes from a provision passed by Congress, which allocated $85 million for the transfer of a space vehicle to an entity near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.  

Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are leading the effort, arguing that Houston is the "cornerstone of our nation's human space exploration program" and was unfairly denied a retired shuttle in the past. They believe bringing  

Discovery to Houston, known as "Space City," will give future generations the chance to see a "living piece of NASA's history". The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has formally asked the Smithsonian and NASA to begin preparing for the transfer to Space Center Houston.  

The Danger: Taking the Shuttle Apart

The main reason this has become a crisis is a major logistical problem: how to move a 122-foot long, 78-foot wide spacecraft across the country.  

In the past, shuttles were moved safely by strapping them to the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). However, the SCA is now retired and unavailable.  

Without the special plane, the Smithsonian and NASA warned Congress that the only way to move the massive orbiter from Virginia to Texas by ground or barge would require "significant disassembly".  

This process is extremely dangerous because:

• The space shuttle was never designed to be taken apart.  

• Discovery is considered the "most intact shuttle orbiter" left.  

• Taking it apart risks "irreparable damage" to its irreplaceable parts, especially the roughly 24,000 delicate ceramic heat shield tiles and 2,000 thermal insulation blankets. These fragile tiles were critical for the shuttle to survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Preservation experts warn that damaging these parts would destroy the artifact's historical value.  

Former NASA scientist Keith Cowing compared the risk to "taking the Washington Monument and sawing it into pieces and moving it somewhere".  

The Opposition: Virginia Senators Lead the Fight

Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both representing Virginia, are actively working to stop the move. Their strategy targets the move’s two biggest weaknesses: cost and risk.  

1. Massive Costs: While the legislation initially set aside $85 million for the move and construction, the Virginia senators and the Smithsonian estimate the true total cost will be over $375 million. They argue that spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to move an artifact already safely displayed in a museum is "inefficient and unjustifiable".  

2. Public Access: Senator Kaine has also noted that Discovery is currently free to view at the Smithsonian's museum in Virginia, but visitors would likely have to pay an entrance fee, possibly around $30, to see it at the Space Center Houston Museum.  

The Virginia delegation, joined by other lawmakers like Senator Mark Kelly (a former astronaut who commanded Discovery ), is urging Congress to include language in budget bills that would  

block the use of any federal funds for the relocation.  

The Current Standoff

The opposition has seen some success in Congress. The House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would prohibit the Smithsonian from using its own funds to carry out the transfer. This move, which passed with widespread support, signals that many lawmakers are hesitant to fund what they view as a politically motivated and highly risky project.  

In short, the White House is pushing to move the shuttle to Texas, which experts say requires taking it apart. Meanwhile, Virginia's senators and their allies are working hard to block the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to make the costly and potentially destructive transfer happen.