{"id":316,"date":"2025-07-03T15:06:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/?p=316"},"modified":"2025-07-10T15:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:28:41","slug":"space-shuttle-discovery-would-move-to-texas-under-gop-megabill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/03\/space-shuttle-discovery-would-move-to-texas-under-gop-megabill\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Shuttle Discovery would move to Texas under GOP megabill"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Space Shuttle Discovery would move to Texas under President Trump\u2019s sweeping tax and spending bill<\/a>, according to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).<\/p>\n

Cornyn\u2019s office said in a statement on his website<\/a> that Trump\u2019s megabill \u201cwould authorize\u201d Discovery\u2019s shipment to \u201can entity\u201d close to<\/a> Houston\u2019s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. It is currently on display<\/a> at the Smithsonian\u2019s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Northern Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston has long been the cornerstone of our nation\u2019s human space exploration program, and it\u2019s long overdue for Space City to receive the recognition it deserves by bringing the Space Shuttle Discovery home,\u201d Cornyn said in the Monday statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am glad to see this pass as part of the Senate\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill and look forward to welcoming Discovery to Houston and righting this egregious wrong,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Discovery, which took its last flight in 2011, spent a year in space while it was in service and travelled almost 150 million miles, according to the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston has long stood at the heart of America\u2019s human spaceflight program, and this legislation rightly honors that legacy,\u201d Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in Cornyn\u2019s release<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ensures that any future transfer of a flown, crewed space vehicle will prioritize locations that have played a direct and vital role in our nation\u2019s manned space program, making Houston, Texas, a leading candidate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

House Republicans advanced Trump’s policy bill early Thursday morning, overcoming an important procedural<\/a> hurdle toward a final vote following a dramatic vote that Republican leaders left open for hours to calm an internal revolt.<\/p>\n

When reached for comment, the National Air and Space Museum directed The Hill to a message to Congress in which they said \u201cthe case against relocating the orbiter Discovery is both philosophical and practical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be unprecedented for Congress to remove an object from a Smithsonian collection and send it somewhere else,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Space Shuttle Discovery is not on loan to the Smithsonian from NASA,” the statement reads. “Ownership was transferred to the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum (NASM).\u201d<\/p>\n

Updated at 3:09 p.m. EDT <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Space Shuttle Discovery would move to Texas under President Trump\u2019s sweeping tax and spending bill, according to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Cornyn\u2019s office said in a statement on his website that Trump\u2019s megabill \u201cwould authorize\u201d Discovery\u2019s shipment to \u201can entity\u201d close to Houston\u2019s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. It is currently on display at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkerstyn.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}