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The Budget Busting Bill just passed has a provision to move the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Houston, TX by 2027. The addition was placed in the bill by Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. The bill allocates $85 million to move the shuttle and build a facility for it at Johnson Space Center.
Besides the Smithsonian, the remaining shuttles are on display at Kennedy Space Center, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York. The Johnson Space Center currently has the shuttle mockup "Independence" atop the 747 used to transport the crafts.
The transport was last used to fly the shuttles to their museum sites 13 years ago and has not been flown since.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-signin...55343.html
I guess we should be happy Cruz didn't send it to Cancun
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” —Augustine.
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The Smithsonian estimates moving it could cost more than $300 million, and there’s the small detail that the modified Boeing 747 used to transport the shuttles is no longer available.
Transportation via barge across the Gulf of Trump might cost considerably less. But even if enough money is there to move the Discovery there is no mention of how Texas will get ownership of the shuttle - or where/how it will be housed and displayed.
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Wow.
Seems like something DOGE(shit) should stop.
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This, like this whole clown show, is just so frigging stupid.
It’s pork like this that makes me want to scream and slap the crap out of the self serving, self important blowhards in Congress. It’s disgusting.
This is exactly the type of waste that should be eliminated instead of firing national park employees, among others.
These are the people who need to be rounded up and expelled from their jobs.
Whippet, Whippet Good
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolog...r-AA1HXHwX
Tipping the scale at almost 80 metric tons and 122 feet in length, the orbiter airframe is covered in fragile yet strong thermal protection tiles and reinforced carbon-carbon panels, many of which are priceless relics of American spaceflight history. Discovery was the third flying orbiter when it entered service in 1984, recording more missions than any other shuttle, including launching the Hubble Space Telescope and taking John Glenn back into orbit. Its composite structure, which is built to withstand the stresses of launch and reentry, was never meant for overland or over-the-road haulage in retirement.
The Smithsonian has highlighted that the shuttle’s “extremely complicated and challenging” transfer carries a “substantial” risk of damage. While tanks or even large airplanes can be hauled with relatively simple equipment, Discovery’s composite structure and delicate systems require specialized handling, environmental control, and even custom-built transport fixtures. Museum conservationists point out that the orbiter’s thousands of silica tiles are prone to vibration and shock, and that its aluminum structure, after decades in spaceflight and display, needs careful support to avoid warping or cracking when being moved.
Moving such large-scale aerospace artifacts is unusual and logistically challenging. The shuttle Endeavour’s 2012 relocation to Los Angeles took months of planning, the temporary stripping of streetlights and electrical wires, and a highly engineered transport cradle. Even then, microfractures and stresses in the orbiter were monitored by conservation teams during transit. The Smithsonian’s own estimate is not only the move itself, but also designing and building a climate-controlled exhibit hall in Houston and the development of new exhibit to replace Discovery’s vacancy in Virginia—a factor, critics of the lower cost estimates argue, that is frequently minimized.
...the Smithsonian and various lawmakers reply that Discovery’s location in the national museum will make it accessible to the entire nation, not a single region. “It’ll cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. It’ll be a sad day for our community when this shuttle is taken away from us...”
This looks like a job for inadvisably applied magic if ever I saw one.
--Terry Pratchet
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So quick to spend the People's precious resources on Senatorial d*ck measuring.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/1066 01:25PM by William, Duke of Normandy
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I am surprised they didn't take one from CA or NY, just to stick it to the liberals. DC does not vote. Why take their shuttle?
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(Yesterday, 01:59 PM)special Wrote: I am surprised they didn't take one from CA or NY, just to stick it to the liberals. DC does not vote. Why take their shuttle?
The shuttle in New York is the Enterprise; it is a test glider and was not used for space flight. It would not be much different than the mock shuttle currently in Houston.
The Endeavor in Los Angeles is privately owned after the government transferred ownership to The California Science Center Foundation in 2012.
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” —Augustine.
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4 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 4 hours ago by gabester.)
(Yesterday, 01:59 PM)special Wrote: I am surprised they didn't take one from CA or NY, just to stick it to the liberals. DC does not vote. Why take their shuttle?
If you ask me, it's precisely because Washington, D.C. does not have any electoral votes and is under direct federal jurisdiction that the Smithsonian orbiter was - according to the sources I've read - the intended target but not specifically called out by name. Instead, the legislation merely:
(Yesterday, 01:59 PM)Ars Technica Wrote: Stipulates that a "space vehicle" (defined as a vessel that carried people into space) be transferred within 18 months of enactment to a NASA center "involved in the administration of the Commercial Crew program"
So the Texas Senators have set their sites on Discovery but have a CYA in case it proves too expensive, a Dragon capsule would do, or better yet, how about the Starliner from Boeing?
However, the real concern is this - because of DC's special status and the President's ability to pardon any illegality, I'd expect anything of value to be looted from the city before the end of his term and taken off to deep red cultist fiefdoms as reward for their service. Protests there can be crushed in ways that would not be practical in any of the States, even with the gamesmanship currently wasting valuable tax dollars in LA.
The billionaires rewarded by this legislation really ought to demand that all the pork in it ought to be reviewed and removed by the now-well-funded (to the tune of $100 million?) DOGE is that is money that could have been spent granting them additional tax relief. Instead I suspect they'll be using their gains off the sweat of our backs to buy rare trinkets from the national museum when they're not bribing officials for additional gains.
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