AUSTIN (KXAN) — A bill introduced Thursday could help bring the Space Shuttle Discovery back home to Texas.
“The first word spoken from the moon was ‘Houston.’ To honor that legacy, it’s long overdue for a retired NASA Space Shuttle to rest at Houston’s Johnson Space Center so Texans can see, learn from, and enjoy it for generations,” said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The shuttle has been on display in Virginia since April 2012, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) transferred Discovery to the Smithsonian, according to the National Air and Space Museum.
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Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from launch complex 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center July 26, 2005, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo by Matt Stroshane/Getty Images) -
In this handout image provided by NASA, partial view of the port wing of the space shuttle Discovery during a survey of the approaching STS-133 vehicle prior to docking with the International Space Station February 26, 2011 in Space. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) -
In this handout image provided by NASA, the space shuttle Discovery is seen from the International Space Station on March 7, 2011 in Space. Discovery was in service for 27 years and will be decommissioned and sent to a museum. Two remaining shuttle missions are planned before the program ends. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) -
4/10/1990 – Shuttle Discovery astronauts leave crew headquarters as they head for launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center. The crew, from left are: mission specialists Bruce McCandless, Kathryn Sullivan, Steven Hawley, bkgrd: Charles Bolden Jr., pilot; and Loren Shriver, commander. -
Space Shuttle Discovery launches from Kennedy Space Center on September 9, 1994. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) -
Transfer ceremony for the Space Shuttle Discovery (R) at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Virginia on April 19, 2012, when the Shuttle was placed on permanent display. Discovery is the first spaceship of the retired US shuttle fleet to enter its permanent home as a museum artifact. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) -
The Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) as seen from Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-39 in 1991. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) -
Space Shuttle ‘Discovery’ departs Edwards Air Force Base in California on top of NASA 747 aircraft for transport back to Kennedy Space Center, circa. October 1,1990. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)
U.S. Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed the Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act, which would allow the shuttle to be moved from the Smithsonian museum to a nonprofit near the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Discovery is the only shuttle still owned by the federal government.
