The battle over the future headquarters of the United States Space Command seems settled, at least for now. Colorado lawmakers have accepted that the unified combatant command of the United States Department of Defense, responsible for military operations in outer space, will relocate to Huntsville, AL. However, leaders of Fairfax County, VA, are digging in for another “Space” fight, namely for the future location of the Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103)
The third operational orbiter and most-flown Space Shuttle, completed 39 missions from 1984 to 2011, spending a combined 365 days in space. It is currently preserved by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. However, Texas lawmakers have called for OV-103 to be moved to Space Center Houston.
In July, Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act,” which would allocate $85 million to relocate the Space Shuttle to the Lone Star State. The state already houses a shuttle replica on a 747 carrier aircraft.
The two Republican lawmakers noted that the Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center led all of the Space Shuttle flights, while the astronauts who flew aboard the shuttles also lived and trained in Houston.
“Houston played a critical role throughout the life of the space shuttle program, but it is clear political favors trumped common sense and fairness when the Obama administration blocked the Space City from receiving the recognition it deserves,” said Sen. Cornyn earlier this year.
Where are the Shuttles?
Cornyn and Cruz also cited the “NASA Authorization Act of 2010,” which had specified that the four Space Shuttles retired from NASA were to be given to states with a “historical relationship with either the launch, flight operations, or processing of the Space Shuttle orbiters or the retrieval of NASA-manned space vehicles, or significant contributions to human space flight.”
However, more than 20 organizations submitted proposals to display one of the orbiters in their museums. In the end, the Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101), which had been on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center from 2003 to 2011, was relocated to the USS Intrepid Museum in New York City, while the Smithsonian received OV-103.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104) is currently at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Merritt Island, Florida, and the Space Shuttle Endeavor (OV-105) is located at the California Science Center, Los Angeles, California. There was disappointment at the time that the Johnson Space Center wasn’t selected, and the sentiment was shared by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Ohio. Lawmakers from both states called for Congressional investigations, but no such action was taken.
Texas lawmakers also questioned why New York City was given one of the four shuttles, despite making no significant contributions to space exploration and not being home to a NASA center, unlike Houston. It should be noted that Chicago media also questioned why its famed Adler Planetarium wasn’t among the facilities to receive a shuttle, given its population size.
Other museums have received simulators and other hardware related to the program.
The Fight For the Space Shuttle
Given the location of former orbiters, the question is, why has Texas set its sights on the Space Shuttle Discovery? The primary reason may be that the federal government still owns the only shuttle and can transfer it to Houston, according to the lawmakers.
However, the fight isn’t likely to be an easy one, even though $85 million was set aside to fund the relocation of the shuttle in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this summer. The Smithsonian Institution, which operates the National Air and Space Museum, has already vowed to fight the move, issuing a message to Congress that described it as “unprecedented” for the federal government to remove an object from its collection.
“The space shuttle Discovery is not on loan to the Smithsonian from NASA,” the message stated. “Ownership was transferred to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.”
National Air and Space Museum Director Chris Browne also told the Washington Business Journal in July, “Our position is that the Discovery is staying right where it is.”
Although the Smithsonian was created by the federal government, and about two-thirds of its funding comes from federal appropriations, objects in its collections are managed as federal property, according to a report from Flying magazine.
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia also questioned the cost, as did Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors, who voted 10-0 on Tuesday to send a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who also serves as acting NASA administrator, asking him to carefully consider whether a move is in the best interests of the nation.
The letter highlighted the legal, logistical, and financial challenges of relocating the Space Shuttle Discovery, as well as the “risk of irreparable damage” that it could suffer.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) expressed similar concerns, warning that such a move could compromise the spacecraft’s preservation.
Endeavor for Discovery
The group Keep the Shuttle issued its own independent findings that suggested that if the relocation were to go forward, it could “require a 25+ mile tow through Fairfax County and other parts of Northern Virginia to reach a navigable portion of the Potomac River, at which point the shuttle would be loaded onto a barge for a 2,000+ mile journey to Texas.”
The group further cited the 12-mile tow of the Space Shuttle Endeavor through Los Angeles in 2012, which required local support and resources.
Moving the Discovery twice the distance would be a serious endeavor, which Keep the Shuttle claims could necessitate the removal of 400 trees, the reinforcement of local roads with steel plating, the removal of hundreds of utility poles, traffic signs, and streetlights.
By contrast, Space Shuttle Discovery was delivered to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) in April 2012, carried on a modified Boeing 747 from the Kennedy Space Center. The aircraft made a historic flyover of Washington, D.C., passing over the National Mall before landing, and the shuttle towed the short distance to the museum.
As none of the original Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) formerly used by NASA remains in operation, the only option to move the space shuttle is via barge. That fact may be enough to keep the Discovery at its current home.
