\u201cThe acting administrator has made an identification. We have no further public statement at this time,\u201d said a spokesperson for Duffy in response to an inquiry.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, identified a retired NASA space shuttle to be moved to \u201ca non-profit near the Johnson Space Center\u201d in Houston, Texas, on Aug. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n Credit: It is not clear why the choice of orbiters is being held a secret. According to the bill, the decision was to be made \u201cwith the concurrence of an entity designated\u201d by the NASA administrator to display the shuttle. Cornyn\u2019s release only confirmed that Duffy had identified the location to be \u201ca non-profit near the Johnson Space Center (JSC).\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n Space Center Houston is owned by the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, and is the official visitor\u2019s center for NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to work on the basis that the shuttle identified is Discovery<\/em> and proceed with our preparations for its arrival and providing it a world-class home,\u201d Keesha Bullock, interim COO and chief communications and marketing officer at Space Center Houston, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Another possible reason for the hesitation to name an orbiter may be NASA\u2019s ability, or rather inability, to identify one of its three remaining space-flown shuttles that is available to be moved.<\/p>\n NASA transferred the title for space shuttle Endeavour<\/em> to the California Science Center in Los Angeles in 2012, and as such it is no longer US government property. (The science center is a public-private partnership between the state of California and the California Science Center Foundation.)<\/p>\n NASA still owns space shuttle Atlantis<\/em> and displays it at its own Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.<\/p>\n Discovery<\/em>, the fleet leader and \u201cvehicle of record,\u201d was the focus of Cornyn and Cruz\u2019s original \u201cBring the Space Shuttle Home Act.\u201d The senators said they chose Discovery<\/em> because it was \u201cthe only shuttle still owned by the federal government and able to be transferred to Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n For the past 13 years, Discovery<\/em> has been on public display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, the annex for the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. As with Endeavour<\/em>, NASA signed over title upon the orbiter\u2019s arrival at its new home.<\/p>\n As such, Smithsonian officials are clear: Discovery<\/em> is no longer NASA\u2019s to have or to move.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Smithsonian Institution owns the Discovery<\/em> and holds it in trust for the American public,\u201d read a statement from the National Air and Space Museum issued before Duffy made his decision. \u201cIn 2012, NASA transferred \u2018all rights, title, interest and ownership\u2019 of the shuttle to the Smithsonian.\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n The Smithsonian operates as a trust instrumentality of the United States and is partially funded by Congress, but it is not part of any of the three branches of the federal government.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Smithsonian is treated as a federal agency for lots of things to do with federal regulations and state action, but that\u2019s very different than being an agency of the executive branch, which it most certainly is not,\u201d Nick O\u2019Donnell, an attorney who specializes in legal issues in the museum and visual arts communities and co-chairs the Art, Cultural Property, and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association, said in an interview.<\/p>\n The Smithsonian has displayed the space shuttle Discovery<\/em> at the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, since April 2012.<\/p>\n Credit: \u201cIf there\u2019s a document that accompanied the transfer of the space shuttle, especially if it says something like, \u2018all rights, title, and interest,\u2019 that\u2019s a property transfer, and that\u2019s it,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n \u201cNASA has decided to transfer all rights, interest, title, and ownership of Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Air and Space Museum,\u201d reads the signed transfer of ownership for space shuttle orbiter Discovery<\/em> (OV-103), according to a copy of the paperwork obtained by collectSPACE.<\/p>\n The Congressional Research Service also raised the issue of ownership in its paper, \u201cTransfer of a Space Vehicle: Issues for Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability of the NASA Administrator to direct transfer of objects owned by non-NASA entities\u2014including the Smithsonian and private organizations\u2014is unclear and may be subject to question. This may, in turn, limit the range of space vehicles that may be eligible for transfer under this provision.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Air and Space Museum also raised concerns about the safety of relocating the space shuttle now. The One Big Beautiful Bill allocated $85 million to transport the orbiter and construct a facility to display it. The Smithsonian contends it could be much more costly.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n \u201cRemoving Discovery<\/em> from the Udvar-Hazy Center and transporting it to another location would be very complicated and expensive, and likely result in irreparable damage to the shuttle and its components,\u201d the museum\u2019s staff said in a statement. \u201cThe orbiter is a fragile object and must be handled according to the standards and equipment NASA used to move it originally, which exceeds typical museum transport protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGiven its age and condition, Discovery<\/em> is at even greater risk today. The Smithsonian employs world-class preservation and conservation methods, and maintaining Discovery<\/em>\u2018s current conditions is critical to its long-term future,\u201d the museum\u2019s statement concluded.<\/p>\n The law directs NASA to transfer the space shuttle (the identified space vehicle) to Space Center Houston (the entity designated by the NASA administrator) within 18 months of the bill\u2019s enactment, or January 4, 2027.<\/p>\n In the interim, an amendment to block funding the move is awaiting a vote by the full House of Representatives when its members return from summer recess in September.<\/p>\n \u201cThe forced removal and relocation of the Space Shuttle Discovery<\/em> from the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s Air and Space Museum is inappropriate, wasteful, and wrong. Neither the Smithsonian nor American taxpayers should be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this misguided effort,\u201d said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), who introduced the amendment.<\/p>\n A grassroots campaign, KeepTheShuttle.org, has also raised objection to removing Discovery<\/em> from the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n Perhaps the best thing the Smithsonian can do\u2014if indeed it is NASA\u2019s intention to take Discovery<\/em>\u2014is nothing at all, says O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say the Smithsonian\u2019s recourse is to keep the shuttle exactly where it is. It\u2019s the federal government that has no recourse to take it,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cThe space shuttle [Discovery<\/em>] is the Smithsonian\u2019s, and any law that suggests the intention to take it violates the Fifth Amendment on its face\u2014the government cannot take private property.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The head of NASA has decided to move one of the agency\u2019s retired space shuttles to Houston, but which one seems to still be up in the air. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who earlier this year introduced and championed an effort to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston, issued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9541,9542,9543,3789,9544,190,4472,9545,967,9546,3167,4849,4029,9547,9506,9548,5938,1898,2857],"class_list":["post-44146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-acting-administrator","tag-bring-the-space-shutle-home-act","tag-chantilly","tag-discovery","tag-john-corbyn","tag-nasa","tag-national-air-and-space-museum","tag-one-big-beautiful-bill","tag-sean-duffy","tag-senators","tag-smithsonian","tag-space-exploration","tag-space-history","tag-space-center-houston","tag-space-shuttle-2","tag-steven-f-udvar-hazy-center","tag-ted-cruz","tag-texas","tag-virginia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"a](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/news-080625d-lg-640x960.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nOrbiter owners<\/h2>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/news-080625b-lg-640x960.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nDefending Discovery<\/em><\/h2>\n