Discovery was kept in as close to as-flown condition as possible to be the vehicle of record for future research. No museum on the planet is better equipped to handle things like that than the Smithsonian.
Hopefully the title transfer is enough to protect it from moving. Certainly 80 million isn't enough to restore an SCA and construct a building to house the orbiter.
Now, maybe things are very different at the top but my understanding is that museums don't pay to have things restored. It's a combination of volunteers and businesses donating labor/facilities/materials and the restoration gets performed over time and is itself a "profit" creating exhibit before the end product goes on display as a normal exhibit. The $80mil would just need to be the facility and the hauling.
It would seem to me that there’s a pretty, pretty big difference between relying on a half-dozen 80-year-olds to restore some forgotten warbird on a volunteer basis, and maintaining stewardship of an irreplaceable and literally priceless national asset.
My primary objection to this is that Space Center Houston is terrible. Udvar-Hazy is a way, way better home.
Discovery was kept in as close to as-flown condition as possible to be the vehicle of record for future research. No museum on the planet is better equipped to handle things like that than the Smithsonian.
Hopefully the title transfer is enough to protect it from moving. Certainly 80 million isn't enough to restore an SCA and construct a building to house the orbiter.
My primary objection to this is that Space Center Houston is terrible. Udvar-Hazy is a way, way better home.