{"id":142091,"date":"2025-10-24T05:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/142091\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T05:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:38:08","slug":"the-battle-over-space-shuttle-discovery-keeps-getting-crazier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/142091\/","title":{"rendered":"The Battle Over Space Shuttle Discovery Keeps Getting Crazier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Senators have launched an all-out crusade to break Space Shuttle Discovery into pieces and move it to their state<\/a>. This iconic spacecraft has been on display at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, and the institution isn\u2019t giving it up without a fight.<\/p>\n

As this saga has unfolded over the past several months, the Smithsonian has warned<\/a> Congress that breaking Discovery apart would not only be costly but would also risk destroying its historical value. Now, Texas Senators have called on<\/a> the Department of Justice to investigate the Smithsonian\u2019s \u201cillegal lobbying\u201d against the shuttle\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a silly attempt to silence the Smithsonian from publicly defending their full and permanent \u2018right, title and interest\u2019 of Discovery, and a tactic that was previously tried<\/a> with an appeal to Smithsonian Chancellor and Chief Justice John Roberts,\u201d said Joe Stief, founder of Keep The Shuttle, a grassroots effort to keep the Discovery at the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Chancellor did not publicly take any actions after the August statement<\/a>, it appears that Sen. Cornyn is hoping to find a more receptive audience at the Department of Justice,\u201d he told Gizmodo in a statement.<\/p>\n

How did we get here? <\/p>\n

In April, Texas Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced<\/a> a bill to \u201cbring Discovery home to Texas.\u201d That bill was ultimately included in the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d Act, signed<\/a> into law on July 4.<\/p>\n

The move has been met with opposition from the Smithsonian, supporters of the museum, and Democratic lawmakers. In September, Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee urging for fiscal year 2026 spending measures to pause any efforts to move the space shuttle.<\/p>\n

The Smithsonian followed suit, sending its own letter to the committee stating that both it and NASA believe that relocating Discovery would cost up to $150 million and could result in irreparable damage to the shuttle. That cost would far exceed the $85 million allocated to the shuttle\u2019s relocation in the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not surprised that the relocation\u2019s proponents were dismayed to see these facts presented to Congress and then publicly,\u201d Stief said. \u201cBut rather than providing any details of an alternative plan to relocate Discovery, they continue to allude to \u2018industry experts\u2019 who disagree with NASA and the Smithsonian\u2014the organizations who designed, flew, transported, and now preserve the shuttle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering tricky legal terrain <\/p>\n

In a letter sent to the DOJ on Wednesday, Senators Cornyn and Cruz and Congressman Randy Weber indeed claim that \u201cindustry experts\u201d do not support the Smithsonian\u2019s claim that Discovery would need to be deconstructed. They also cast doubt on the institution\u2019s cost estimate for the shuttle\u2019s relocation, claiming it is \u201cmore than 10 times higher than quotes from experienced private-sector logistics firms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter argues that the Smithsonian has potentially violated the Anti-Lobbying Act. This federal law prohibits<\/a> the use of appropriated government funds\u2014without authorization from Congress\u2014to influence members of Congress or other government officials on legislation.<\/p>\n

The Smithsonian maintains that it has owned Discovery ever since NASA transferred \u201call rights, title, interest, and ownership\u201d to the institution in 2012 and questions the legality of any government-ordered relocation of the shuttle. Cornyn, Cruz, and Weber refute this, stating that the Smithsonian is fundamentally a federal entity funded mostly by Congress and bound by federal law.<\/p>\n

This dispute centers on the Smithsonian\u2019s status as a \u201ctrust instrumentality,\u201d a public trust recognized by Congress but distinct from federal agencies. This allows the Smithsonian to operate independently. What\u2019s more, legal precedent states<\/a> that artifacts donated to the institution are not federal property but Smithsonian property.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear whether the DOJ will formally investigate the Smithsonian, and with no end in sight to the current government shutdown, Discovery\u2019s fate hangs in the balance. The stalled fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill includes competing provisions that could either enforce or halt the shuttle\u2019s relocation. We\u2019ll just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Senators have launched an all-out crusade to break Space Shuttle Discovery into pieces and move it to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,19,17,1024,133,35506,451,84127],"class_list":{"0":"post-142091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-smithsonian","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-space-shuttle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115427534900145691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}