It looks like Space Shuttle Discovery won’t have to pack its bags just yet. New NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has fired the retrorockets on a proposal to move the shuttle to Texas from its home at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center, reports FOX 5 DC. This contradicts former acting administrator Sean Duffy’s approval of the orbiter’s relocation in August 2025, perhaps because Isaacman is actually interested in space rather than a former reality show cast member who temporarily fell into the job.
The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law last year included a provision requiring NASA to transfer a vehicle that “has flown into space” and “has carried astronauts” to be “transferred to a field center of the Administration that is involved in the administration of the Commercial Crew Program” and “placed on public exhibition at an entity within the Metropolitan Statistical Area where such center is located,” which is Houston, Texas. While not called out by name, this vehicle was understood to be Discovery, which Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn had already tried to move to Texas through a separate bill that never made it out of committee, according to The Space Review.
However, Space.com reports that NASA and the Smithsonian have concluded that the cost just to move the shuttle would be at least $120 to $150 million, far more than the $85 million allocated for both the move and the construction of a new facility to house it. Also, since the two Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft are now immobile museum pieces themselves, the only way to move Discovery would be to cut it up into pieces to ship by land and sea, causing irreparable damage to the orbiter itself as well as its historic significance. Naturally, the Texas Senators opened an investigation into the Smithsonian for “obstructing the lawful implementation of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by telling them what they didn’t want to hear.
He’s right, you know
The thing is, NASA and the Smithsonian are right to fight back, and Jared Isaacman has their back. “My job now is to make sure we can undertake such a transportation within the budget dollars we have available and, of course, most importantly, ensuring the safety of the vehicle,” FOX 5 DC reports Isaacman said. That’s a strong indication that he understands the importance of keeping Discovery intact. He’s in a tough position, being required to comply with the law, but also understanding and appreciating the value of Discovery where it is, and in one piece.
The non-specific wording in the Big Beautiful Bill works in his favor. The Smithsonian’s Human Spaceflight collection “spans decades of achievements from the first U.S. manned Mercury missions through Apollo, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station.” It includes many spacecraft from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs that meet the letter of the law, could be transported to Texas fully intact, and put on display well within the $85 million budget. It just wouldn’t be a Space Shuttle.
What this approach doesn’t address, however, is the dangerous precedent it would set that the government could raid the Smithsonian for artifacts and tell it what to do with them. This could apply not just to the Air and Space Museum, but to anything the Smithsonian owns. This battle may be above Isaacman’s pay grade to fight in his role as NASA administrator, requiring lawmakers rather than bureaucrats to set things straight. Considering this administration’s tendency to rewrite history, I’m not optimistic that this will happen.
