Moving Discovery was the goal of legislation brought earlier this year by Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who said in April that Houston's long ties to the space program should have been recognized with a space shuttle when four were retired by NASA in 2010.

Buried in the sweeping legislation is an $85 million provision to move NASA's most-flown spacecraft from the national collection to Space Center Houston.

The Senate narrowly passed Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Tuesday with a provision setting aside $85 million to move Discovery to Space Center Houston. U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans, are pushing for the move and lauded its passage this week. Cornyn said the move would right an “egregious wrong.”