Texas accused of stealing iconic piece of American history in space 'heist'
Texas is being accused of trying to steal an iconic piece of American history in a bizarre space ‘heist’.
There has been a political push by some senators to have the space shuttle known as Discovery removed from its current home in the Smithsonian.
Instead, it would be relocated and put on display at the Space Center in Houston.
This comes after Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who both represent the state of Texas, introduced the ‘Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act’.
Advert
The pair also put in a provision into President Donald Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ which vaguely set out to achieve the same goals.
President Trump later signed the bill into law on July 4.
In response, Cornyn said in a statement: “I am glad to see this pass as part of the Senate’s One Big Beautiful Bill and look forward to welcoming Discovery to Houston and righting this egregious wrong.
“Houston has long been the cornerstone of our nation’s human space exploration program, and it’s long overdue for Space City to receive the recognition it deserves by bringing Space Shuttle Discovery home.”
However, the efforts to move the space shuttle to Texas hasn’t been without pushback, with others even referring to it as a heist.
That’s what Senator Dick Durbin believes as he said during a budget markup hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee: “This is not a transfer, it’s a heist, a heist by Texas because they lost a competition 12 years ago.”
Durbin went on to say: “In the reconciliation bill, Texas entered $85 million to move the space shuttle from the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, to Texas. Eighty-five million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but it is not nearly what’s necessary for this to be accomplished.”
He continued: “This will be the first time ever in the history of the Smithsonian someone has taken one of their displays and forcibly taken possession of it. What are we doing here? They don’t have the right in Texas to claim this.”
It is still unclear whether Congress actually has the right to remove a piece from the Smithsonian’s collection.
According to the institution located in Washington DC, it maintains that it is the owner of Discovery after paperwork that was signed by NASA back in 2012 gave the Smithsonian ‘all rights, interest, title, and ownership’ to the space shuttle.