'The Smithsonian Institution owns the Discovery.' Museum resists Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' plan to move space shuttle to Houston

Thirty years after its first launch, the space shuttle Discovery is now the centerpiece of the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

A provision in President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" orders the Air and Space Museum to transfer ownership of Space Shuttle Discovery back to NASA for relocation near the space center in Houston. However, the Smithsonian Institution is not backing down on its stance that Congress has no legal authority to mandate Discovery's removal, and they're bringing the receipts.

It all started with the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act." Introduced by Texas Senators John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R) in April, this act was an attempt to force the transfer of Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center just outside Washington D.C. to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The act stalled in committee and would have been dead in the water, but was rebranded and folded into the more than 1,100 pages of President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" in an attempt to force the issue.