Posted: Sat, Jan 3, 2026, 11:13 AM ET (1613 GMT)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman appeared to open the door to alternatives to moving the space shuttle Discovery from a Smithsonian museum to Houston. A provision of the budget reconciliation bill enacted in July directs NASA to perform a “space vehicle transfer” widely interpreted to mean moving Discovery from the Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington to Space Center Houston. In an interview on CNBC Dec. 26, Isaacman said NASA was ensuring that such a move could be done within budget and safely, factors raised by critics of the move. If not, he said, “we have spacecraft going around the moon with Artemis 2, 3, 4 and 5,” suggesting the Orion spacecraft from one of those missions could go to Houston instead and still comply with the law.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Houston Chronicle article
•  Space.com article