Honestly, with the significance of the space shuttle program to Houston and vice-versa, having one on display in Houston does seem important. Feels really weird to agree with something that Ted Cruz says (even if the actual intent may be a bit different).
EDIT (before even posting): I looked into it a bit and came across this article on arstechnica. It looks like it’s indeed a political stunt. All of the necessary transport vehicles have been disassembled and the staff involved in their operation retired.
The cost would be significantly higher than $85M. It’s also questioned whether the orbiter would survive the trip. Would have been ideal for an orbiter to be in Houston but may not be reasonably possible at this point.
It feels weird to take one from the most prominent air & space museum in the country, though. There are three space worthy shuttles on display: Atlantis at KSC in Florida, Discovery ar the Smithsonian outside of DC (at their facility by the Dulles airport), and Endeavor at the California Science Center in LA. There’s one more prototype orbiter, Enterprise, at the Intrepid Museum in NYC, and a training mockup, Pathfinder, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. While LA doesn’t have a direct connection to the space shuttle, the orbiters were built about 60 miles away, in Palmdale, and, honestly, it’s the only one on display on that side of the country. KSC has an obvious connection to the shuttle. The shuttle’s engines were developed and tested in Huntsville. If Houston were to poach any of the orbiters, I’d think Enterprise in NYC has the most tenuous connection with the program, and there are already two other orbiters on the east coast.
Don’t worry folks, I’m sure he knows a guy who can do it cheap.
Wait they don’t have to send it back into space to move it though right?
No; basically the only way to move it that distance would be to load it onto the back of a 747, same way she got to DC.
