I
jge GB The BattahonAVednesday, August 26, 1987
slASA pushes recovery program despite criticisi
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Eigh-
months after the Challenger explo
it!, a troubled NASA is at a crossroads,
niggling still toward recovery from that
saster, the agency is also striving to reas-
t its leadership of the American space
program.
Once the proud embodiment of the na-
m’s civilian space effort, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration to-
: iy lacks a bold vision of what it wants to
hieve and is without a comprehensive na-
mal policy to guide it.
Critics and historians say the agency has
en weakened by a reduced political com-
itment, indifference in the White House,
.nderfunding, debates over manned vs.
unarmed flight, the priority of military
pace projects and Pentagon assertion of
pace leadership, the intrusion of other
government agencies into space policy deci-
ions, and lack of vigorous leadership.
The result, says the American Institute
uf Aeronautics and Astronautics, is that the
Cnited States could become a second-class
[lower in space, with the Soviet Union as-
uming unchallenged leadership and the
Europeans, Japanese and Chinese moving
up fast.
That could have economic, political and
u ategic implications well into the 21st cen-
!ury, according to a recent policy statement
•y the AIAA, a respected organization of
ptice scientists, engineers and business
people.
The explosion of the space shuttle Chal
lenger Jan. 28, 1986, which killed its seven
crew members, ripped away NASA’s aura
of invincibility. The subsequent investiga
tion spotlighted mismanagement, sloppi
ness and other flaws within the agency.
NASA has spent much of its time and
money since the accident repairing those
flaws, making sweeping management
changes and correcting faults in the shuttle.
The recovery program is nearing impor
tant milestones that will be crucial in deter
mining when shuttles will fly again. Offi
cials recently slipped the target date for the
First flight from Feb. 26 to June 2 next year.
China Lake Naval Weapons Center, tractor
rockets will be used to fire mannequins out
of the side of an aircraft in a test of a possi
ble shuttle escape system.
Also, a study team headed by astronaut
Sally Ride endorsed development of a
moon base as the nation’s next manned
space exploration goal after the space sta
tion, using the technology developed on
that project to ultimately send astronauts to
Mars.
The team also will recommend vigorous
programs to study the Earth from space
and to explore the planets with robot space
craft.
The shuttle Discovery, set to make that
flight, was powered up electrically to begin
the formal checkout for the mission. More
detailed flight preparations will begin Sept.
8, with rollout to the launch pad set for
March 7 and a static firing of its engines
scheduled April 7.
A key shuttle program test is planned for
today when a solid fuel rocket motor will be
fired at the Morton Thiokol plant in Brig
ham City, Utah. It will be the first involving
the new joint design featuring a capture
latch and three O-ring seals, instead of two.
The Challenger accident occurred because
of a faulty joint design that allowed hot
gases and flame to escape.
Construction of a replacement shuttle
for Challenger began in August at Rockwell
International in Palmdale, Calif., and at the
The report will go to NASA administra
tor James C. Fletcher, who eventually is to
formulate a space policy for submission to
the White House. But because of budget
pressures, Fletcher said recently, “For the
near term, we’re not going to be able to
start any large, expensive programs.”
NASA already is planning its next big
project, a permanently manned space sta
tion, but it appears to be in trouble. Recent
projections increased the cost from an orig
inal $8 billion to $14 billion and forced offi
cials to delay the start of the project from
1992 to 1994 and to split the construction
into two phases, the second coming along
years later. A panel of the National Re
search Council estimated earlier this month
that the two-stage station could cost as
much as $32.8 billion.
President Reagan two years ago strongly
endorsed the space station, but that support
could waver because of the costs in this time
of huge deficits. The White House, occu
pied with the Iran-contra affair and other
concerns, has said little about space efforts
for months, except for the space-based mis
sile defense system known as Star Wars.
Many detractors among space scientists
feel the space station is a waste of money,
that NASA’s selling it as a place for scien
tific research and space manufacturing is
not realistic. They would rather use that
money to build unmanned probes like the
Voyagers and Pioneers that have so success
fully explored other planets and the solar
system.
1 he U.S. planetary explorationpr»f
is in worse shape now than whenthej
was formed seven years ago, said comm
chairman David Morrison.
Morrison noted the Soviets, withai
bitious Mars program, are rapidly asset
themselves as leaders in planetaryexpl
tion.
Several expensive space science projects,
including the Hubble Space Telescope, a
Galileo mission tojupiter, a Magellan flight
to Venus and a Mars Observer have been
delayed several years by the Challenger ac
cident. But these are projects whose plan
ning began in the 1970s, and scientists com
plain NASA is initiating no new major
programs and is now spending about 25
percent less on science than it did in the last
decade.
The job of setting space policy rests
a Reagan administration creation called
Senior Interagency Group-Space,
Space. It is composed of representatitf
the departments of State, Treasun
fense. Justice, Commerce and Transpe
tion and the Office of Management.
Budget, the CIA, the Joint Chiefs ofSt
the Office of Science and Technology
icy and NASA.
The agency’s Solar System Exploration
Committee last month recommended an ac
celerated program that includes comet and
asteroid flights, but questioned whether
NASA would be able to carry out the rec
ommendations.
Critics, like Rep. Bill Nelson, D-Fla,,!
tend SIG-Space often ^ets bogged do*;
turf battles over conflicting interestso:
members. NASA complains othermemj
often meddle in affairs traditidnalli;
erned by the space agency.
Nelson, who heads the space scientt
applications subcommittee and whot
flew on a shuttle mission, placed a pmi
in the 1987 NASA Authorization An;
would have restored the National Aetot
tics and Space Council, a policymak
group that worked well in the earlyda)i
the space program before it was disbar
by President Richard Nixon in 1972.
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