A provision in President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” orders the Air and Space Museum to transfer ownership of Space Shuttle Discovery back to NASA for relocation near the space center in Houston. However, the Smithsonian Institution is not backing down on its stance that Congress has no legal authority to mandate Discovery’s removal, and they’re bringing the receipts.
It all started with the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act.” Introduced by Texas Senators John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R) in April, this act was an attempt to force the transfer of Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center just outside Washington D.C. to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The act stalled in committee and would have been dead in the water, but was rebranded and folded into the more than 1,100 pages of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” in an attempt to force the issue.
While the language of the legislation was altered to comply with Senate reconciliation rules, such as refraining to name Discovery directly, the goal remained the same. The new wording instead refers to the transfer of a “space vehicle” — to be specified by the NASA Administrator within one month of the bill’s signing — to a NASA facility “involved in the administration of the Commercial Crew Program” by January 2027. The Smithsonian has rejected the attempt outright, saying it has the paperwork to prove the Institution’s ownership of Discovery and that it’s critical the space shuttle remains in its care.
The provision in Trump’s bill allocates $85 million for Discovery’s transfer and directs NASA and the Smithsonian to develop a plan for its completion. At least $5 million of that sum is earmarked specifically for the vehicle’s relocation; the rest is meant for the construction of a new facility that can publicly display the shuttle.
The Smithsonian’s stance
In a formal response, the Smithsonian Institution says it owns Discovery, which, like the rest of its collection, is held in trust for the American public. The Smithsonian asserts that NASA transferred “all rights, title, interest and ownership” of the shuttle to the Institution in 2012, and that it is “part of the National Air and Space Museum’s mission and core function as a research facility and the repository of the national air and space collection.”
The Smithsonian was awarded the privilege of providing Discovery’s retirement home in 2011, when NASA announced the fates of all the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Latest from Space.com…