‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Funds $85M Cross-Country Space Shuttle Move

‘Discovery’ will soon be headed to Houston, home of NASA Mission Control.

Caleb Revill

Tuesday, July 08, 2025 at 11:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

The space shuttle Discovery flew 39 missions and was responsible for launching the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. [Courtesy: National Air and Space Museum]

Key Takeaways:

The federal budget bill includes an $85 million allocation to move the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
This move, spearheaded by Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, is mandated to occur within 18 months and aims to place Discovery on public exhibition at the home of NASA Mission Control.
Discovery is historically significant as the third shuttle to fly, serving as a "return-to-flight" orbiter after the *Challenger* disaster, and launching the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Congress’ newly passed federal budget bill will fund moving the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., to Houston.

The nearly 900-page spending bill, dubbed by President Donald Trump as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” includes a provision allocating $85 million to transport the spacecraft and place it on public exhibition at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.