Texas Republicans Want to Steal Space Shuttle Discovery From the Smithsonian

After NASA’s Space Shuttles were retired successful 2010, they were yet sent to museums successful Florida, California, New York, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum successful Virginia. But Texas Republicans are not blessed that the Lone Star authorities didn’t get one, fixed its historical value to abstraction travel. And they’ve introduced authorities to instrumentality the abstraction shuttle presently astatine the Smithsonian and bring it to Houston.

U.S. senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced a caller measure connected Thursday called the Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act, which would necessitate the abstraction shuttle Discovery to beryllium transferred from the Smithsonian to NASA’s Johnson Space Center successful Houston. Discovery was sent to the Smithsonian due to the fact that it’s the oldest shuttle that’s inactive space-worthy, making it invaluable for aboriginal probe and study.

If the authorities passed, it would necessitate the Smithsonian to travel up with a program for moving the shuttle, and that’s wherever things get very, precise tricky. As the quality outlet collectSpace explains, it’s virtually intolerable to determination the shuttle due to the fact that the hardware utilized to relocate the 4 shuttles backmost successful 2012 was destroyed. One of the modified Boeing 747 jetliners that moved the shuttles to their existent homes is sitting successful a depository and isn’t flightworthy, portion the different would request caller engines and a batch of different modification enactment to marque it acceptable for purpose, according to collectSpace.

Even assuming you successfully flew Discovery to Houston, the enactment connected the crushed would contiguous its ain problems. Getting the Endeavour from the L.A. International Airport to the California Science Center took 3 days to screen conscionable 12 miles. Hundreds of trees had to beryllium removed, and portion it was rather a spectacle to ticker the slow-moving shuttle upwind done the city, it was an tremendous undertaking.

NASA employed 1 of its modified Boeing 747s to ferry 3 of the orbiters to their caller homes. On a rainy nighttime successful April 2012, Discovery arrived astatine Dulles International Airport successful Virginia. Photo: NASA

What astir conscionable taking Discovery isolated and reassembling it? That would destruct the thermal blankets and tiles, according to collectSpace, immoderate of the galore things that marque it invaluable arsenic an existing flightworthy shuttle for aboriginal probe and study. And adjacent if it were breached up into smaller pieces, those parts would inactive beryllium acold excessively ample to determination done postulation successful immoderate mean way.

But nary of that seems to beryllium a interest to the Texas senators who are trying to marque this happen. Sen. Cornyn complains that Texas wasn’t fixed 1 of the shuttles due to the fact that President Barack Obama was playing politics.

“Houston played a captious relation passim the beingness of the Space Shuttle program, but it is wide governmental favors trumped communal consciousness and fairness erstwhile the Obama medication blocked the Space City from receiving the designation it deserves,” Cornyn said successful a connection posted online. “I americium arrogant to pb the effort to yet bring Discovery location to Houston, wherever aboriginal generations of Texans and Americans tin travel to larn astir the city’s integral relation successful our nation’s abstraction shuttle program.”

Incredibly, it doesn’t look similar the 2 Texas senators adjacent bothered to speech with Space Center Houston earlier coming up with their idea, according to collectSpace. And portion it sounds similar the depository directors aren’t opposed to the plan, it does look highly unusual they wouldn’t person been consulted successful beforehand of specified disruptive legislation.

“Home to the Johnson Space Center and its famed Mission Control, Houston has an unparalleled estimation and past successful the exploration of the caller frontier,” Sen. Cruz said successful a statement. “It is past clip that the Space Center Houston Museum houses a Space Shuttle, fixed the unsocial narration betwixt the full programme and its enactment unit successful Houston. Bringing the Discovery to its last location volition connection hundreds of thousands of visitors each twelvemonth the accidental to prosecute with a surviving portion of NASA’s past and recognize wherefore Houston is known worldwide arsenic ‘Space City.’”

Discovery archetypal launched from Kennedy Space Center successful Florida connected Aug. 30, 1984, and landed from its last ngo to the International Space Station connected March 9, 2011.