Virginia Lawmakers Work to Keep the Space Shuttle Discovery in Virginia

By Maggie Roth 

In Northern Virginia Magazine 

A group of lawmakers, including Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, are working to keep the Space Shuttle Discovery in Virginia despite efforts to move it to Texas. 

The Discovery has been on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center since 2012. It was one of four shuttles that NASA allocated for public display when the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. The others are on display in California, Florida, and New York.  

Texas lawmakers Ted Cruz and John Cornyn began the push to move the shuttle to Texas this summer, arguing that it belonged in the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. And the Great Big Beautiful Bill Act included an $85 million appropriation to move it there.  

Senators Seek to Block Funding

Now, Kaine, Warner, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (a former astronaut), and Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin have asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to block funding for that relocation from the final fiscal year 2026 spending measures. In a September 23 letter, the senators argued that the move would cost more than the allocated $85 million and would risk damaging the shuttle in transit.  

“Dedicating hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to move an artifact that is already housed, displayed, and preserved in a world-class facility is both inefficient and unjustifiable,” the letter said.  

And, the letter continued, travel puts the shuttle at risk to damage from exposure to salt water, weather, and collision risks. “Moving the shuttle would inevitably and irreparably compromise the artifact and render it unusable as a museum-quality collection item, permanently diminishing its historical and cultural value for future generations,” it said.  

OMB Asks Smithsonian to Prepare for Transfer 

The White House Office of Management and Budget has asked the Smithsonian and NASA to begin preparing for a transfer, FFXnow reported. A letter sent to Congress on September 30 said that the Smithsonian and NASA were asked to verify the actual costs of the move.

Both NASA and the Smithsonian have estimated that the move would cost at least $120 million to $150 million for the relocation, in addition to the cost of building a new facility for the Discovery in Texas.

The Smithsonian also said that the Discovery would likely need “significant disassembly” to be moved, though it would need an engineering study first. “Discovery is the most intact shuttle orbiter of the NASA program, and we remain concerned that disassembling the vehicle will destroy its historical value,” the Smithsonian’s letter said.  

The Smithsonian also reiterated that it maintains ownership of the Discovery. “We remain concerned about the unprecedented nature of a removal of an object from the national collection,” the letter said. 

“There is a political desire and they have funding to relocate the shuttle to Texas. We, on our part with the Smithsonian, are working very hard to prevent that from happening,” said Chris Browne, the John and Adrienne Mars director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. “We think it’s badly ill-advised for many, many reasons, but it’s still here and we’re working hard to make sure it stays here.

While Smithsonian museums use federal funding to operate, their collections are not government property. Instead, artifacts are treated as trust objects subject to Smithsonian control.   

The Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly gets more than 1 million visitors per year, and it it’s free to enter. The museum announced plans in September to undergo its first renovation since 2003. The renovation will expand the Boeing Aviation Hangar by 20 percent, with a projected completion date of 2028. 

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