WASHINGTON: Tucked inside President Donald Trump’s flagship tax and spending bill last month was a little-noticed provision to relocate the iconic Space Shuttle Discovery from a museum outside Washington to Houston.

The plan now faces legal uncertainty, with the Smithsonian Institution arguing Congress had no authority to give away what it considers private property — even before accounting for the steep logistical and financial challenges.

“The Smithsonian Institution owns the Discovery and holds it in trust for the American public,” the museum network, which receives substantial federal funding yet remains an independent entity, said in a statement on Friday.

“In 2012, Nasa transferred ‘all rights, title, interest and ownership’ of the shuttle to the Smithsonian,” the statement continued, calling Discovery one of the museum’s “centerpieces” that welcomes millions of visitors a year.

The push to move Discovery from the Air and Space Museum’s site in northern Virginia began in April, when Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican who faces a tough primary challenge next year by state attorney general Ken Paxton, introduced the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act,” naming Discovery.

The legislation stalled until it was folded into the mammoth “Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law on July 4. Its passage allocated $85 million for the move, though the nonpartisan Congressional Rese­arch Service has projected a far higher cost of $325 million, adding that the Nasa administrator’s power over non-Nasa entities is “unclear.” To comply with Senate rules, the bill’s language was modified such that Discovery is no longer named directly. Instead, the bill refers to a “space vehicle,” though there is little doubt as to the target.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2025