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Texas Senators Plot $305M Space Shuttle Heist, Smithsonian Guards Potted Ferns

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Image & Source: arstechnica

Space Shuttle Discovery, $305 million price tag attached, is eyed by Texas lawmakers for a cross-country “heist” from the Smithsonian, as trending searches ask: 'Can Congress relocate Smithsonian artifacts?' and 'Who owns retired NASA shuttles?' Senator Dick Durbin dryly called it 'a heist by Texas because they lost a competition 12 years ago,' while Houston’s Space Center preps a welcome mat and the Smithsonian polishes paperwork signed in 2012.

Following Durbin's quip about the 'heist,' the Senate budget hearing bristled with $85 million proposals, but NASA and Smithsonian estimates climbed to $305 million plus $178 million for a Houston display facility. Trending: 'How much to move a space shuttle?' and 'Why did Houston not get Discovery?' Meanwhile, the Smithsonian’s prized orbiter sits unmoved, as Congress debates if anyone can actually repossess a national treasure with the stroke of a pen—“This will be the first time ever...someone has forcibly taken possession,” Durbin deadpanned.

Discovery’s paperwork transferred “all rights, interest, title, and ownership” to the Smithsonian in 2012—meaning Texas’s plan would require Congress to outbid both NASA and the concept of museum security.

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