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Title: Senator Calls Out Texas For Trying To Steal Shuttle From Smithsonian

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/11/0...

Senator Dick Durbin questioned a Texas-led effort to move Space Shuttle
Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston, describing it as an
expensive "heist" costing an estimated $305 million, not the $85 million
initially budgeted. "This is not a transfer. It's a heist," said Durbin
during a budget markup hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. "A
heist by Texas because they lost a competition 12 years ago." In April, Texas
Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced legislation to move the Space
Shuttle Discovery from Virginia to Houston, which ultimately passed into law
on July 4 as part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill." Ars Technica reports: "In
the reconciliation bill, Texas entered $85 million to move the space shuttle
from the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, to Texas.
Eighty-five million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but it is not nearly
what's necessary for this to be accomplished," Durbin said. Citing research
by NASA and the Smithsonian, Durbin said that the total was closer to $305
million and that did not include the estimated $178 million needed to build a
facility to house and display Discovery once in Houston. Furthermore, it was
unclear if Congress even has the right to remove an artifact, let alone a
space shuttle, from the Smithsonian's collection. The Washington, DC,
institution, which serves as a trust instrumentality of the US, maintains
that it owns Discovery. The paperwork signed by NASA in 2012 transferred "all
rights, interest, title, and ownership" for the spacecraft to the
Smithsonian. "This will be the first time ever in the history of the
Smithsonian someone has taken one of their displays and forcibly taken
possession of it. What are we doing here? They don't have the right in Texas
to claim this," said Durbin. [...] To be able to bring up his points at
Thursday's hearing, Durbin introduced the "Houston, We Have a Problem"
amendment to "prohibit the use of funds to transfer a decommissioned space
shuttle from one location to another location." He then withdrew the
amendment after having voiced his objections. "I think we're dealing with
something called waste. Eighty-five million dollars worth of waste. I know
that this is a controversial issue, and I know that there are other agencies,
Smithsonian, NASA, and others that are interested in this issue; I'm going to
withdraw this amendment, but I'm going to ask my colleagues be honest about
it," said Durbin. "I hope that we think about this long and hard." "I am glad
to see this pass as part of the Senate's One Big Beautiful Bill and look
forward to welcoming Discovery to Houston and righting this egregious wrong,"
Cornyn said in a statement. "Houston has long been the cornerstone of our
nation's human space exploration program, and it's long overdue for Space
City to receive the recognition it deserves by bringing Space Shuttle
Discovery home."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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