The Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103), the third operational orbiter and the most-flown Space Shuttle, is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia.

However, Texas lawmakers have argued that the spacecraft should never have been offered to the Smithsonian—and have called for OV-103 to be moved to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

This past July, Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act,” which called for allocating $85 million to relocate the Space Shuttle to the Lone Star State. Space Center Houston already houses a shuttle replica on a 747 carrier aircraft.

Lawmakers and others in Texas have long argued that Discovery rightfully belongs at the JSC, where Mission Control led all Space Shuttle flights. Moreover, it argued that the astronauts who flew on shuttle missions lived and trained in Houston.

When the US space shuttle program ended in 2011, the four surviving orbiters found themselves in high demand back on Earth—with more than 20 organizations across the United States competing to obtain one. Ultimately, the Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104) wound up at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida, while the Space Shuttle Endeavor (OV-105) found a home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101), which never flew in orbit but served as a test platform, had previously been on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center from 2003 to 2011, but was relocated to the USS Intrepid Museum in New York City, with the Smithsonian receiving the Discovery.

There have been questions as to why New York City received OV-101, as it had no significant connection to the program. The simple answer is that........

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