The long-disputed effort to move the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Houston has gained a powerful new champion: Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead NASA. According to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Isaacman has formally pledged support for relocating the historic orbiter to the Johnson Space Center (JSC).
Space shuttle Discovery in the Smithsonian Institution’s Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Image credit: courtesy National Air and Space Museum.
Cornyn, who is spearheading the relocation effort alongside Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), revealed the development in a statement released Monday (Dec. 1). The senator said he met with Isaacman — the billionaire entrepreneur behind Shift4 and a private astronaut who has twice flown to orbit with SpaceX — earlier in the day to discuss NASA’s future and America’s competitive stance in space.
According to Cornyn’s statement, the two talked about NASA’s role in safeguarding U.S. leadership as the nation returns astronauts to the Moon and pursues lunar resources seen as vital to national security. They also discussed bolstering JSC as the agency’s core hub for human spaceflight.
During that meeting, Cornyn said, Isaacman pledged to carry out a provision quietly embedded in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the sweeping legislation President Trump signed on July 4. The provision directs NASA to move Discovery “in one piece” from its current home at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to Houston — a move that would reverse the museum allocation decisions made when the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011.
Discovery, the most flown of NASA’s orbiters, completed 39 missions between 1984 and 2011. After the shuttle program ended, NASA distributed the surviving orbiters to museums across the U.S.: Atlantis went to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Endeavour to the California Science Center, and Discovery to the Smithsonian. The prototype shuttle Enterprise was placed in New York, while Challenger and Columbia remain memorials to the astronauts lost in their tragic accidents.
JSC applied for one of the retired orbiters, but the Texas facility was not selected — a decision Cornyn and Cruz have long criticized as an injustice. Their original “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act” stalled in committee, but they succeeded in inserting a version of the directive into the reconciliation-style “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
The legislation also allocates $85 million for relocation and construction of a new display hall in Houston.
Smithsonian Pushback and Mounting Controversy
The plan has sparked intense debate. The Smithsonian maintains that Discovery is its legal property and cannot simply be repossessed by the federal government. Museum officials have also raised concerns that moving the massive orbiter — 122 feet long with a 78-foot wingspan — might require partial disassembly that would compromise its integrity as a historical artifact. They further argue that the relocation would cost far more than Congress has budgeted, estimating a price tag between $120 million and $150 million.
Cornyn’s statement — stressing that the shuttle will be moved “in one piece” — appears aimed at countering concerns about damage during transport.
Isaacman’s Nomination Back in Play
Isaacman’s stance could soon matter far more. The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for his NASA nomination on Wednesday (Dec. 3). It marks his second time before the committee this year; Trump withdrew his initial nomination unexpectedly in May, only to renominated him in November.
If confirmed, Isaacman would oversee NASA at a moment of significant political and strategic tension — and would be placed squarely in the middle of the now-intensified dispute over whether Discovery should leave the Smithsonian for Texas.
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