| Associated Press Tue 15-JUL-1986 08:24 NASAChanges
By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA's administrator said today President Reagan
"gave me strong encouragement" that a replacement will be built for
space shuttle Challenger and that although money remains a problem
"we will find the funds somehow."
James C. Fletcher said the president "gave me a rough estimate" of
how the money problem will be solved but said such an announcement
should come from the White House.
The space agency chief met with Reagan on Monday to deliver a report
that said NASA is well on the way to fixing things the Challenger
investigating commission found wrong and has set a new target - the
first quarter of 1988 - for flying shuttles again.
"This report lays out milestones for estimating our progress,"
Fletcher said on NBC's "Today" show.
The administration has been wrestling internally over whether to
spend the $2.5 billion it will cost to build a new shuttle and buy
spare parts and over where the money would come from in these days of
tight budgets.
"I think there will be a new orbiter," said Fletcher. "The president
gave me strong encouragement."
The NASA chief said also that "the Air Force is hurting right now"
because it has no way to launch military satellites. Not only is the
shuttle not flying, but the Air Force's mighty Titan rocket has been
grounded because of a recent launch failure.
Reagan had ordered Fletcher to report after 30 days on what it was
doing to implement the recommendations of the Challenger commission.
Fletcher told reporters Monday that "instead of saying we will fix
things that the Rogers commission felt were wrong, we are in the
position of saying we are fixing things the Rogers commission found
wrong."
He and Richard Truly, head of the shuttle program, held a news
conference hours after Fletcher delivered to the White House a report
on actions NASA has taken since the Rogers commission made nine major
recommendations last month.
The report said space agency engineers are working on a completely
new design for the booster rockets which caused the Jan. 28
Challenger explosion, as a contingency in case no other approach is
found suitable for the joint seals on the boosters.
"We are going to take a look at designs that assume we can't use the
existing base hardware," Truly said, while conceding a new design
would make it impossible to meet a first quarter-1988 launch
schedule.
"The reason we are doing it is that if we get into testing and we
should have a test failure that shows our design analysis was
inadequate, we'd have a head start on an alternate approach," Truly
said. "However, everybody that's been involved in the redesign
believes there is a design available with the present hardware."
Fletcher said the space agency had responded favorably to each of the
recommendations but said "there is one negative piece of news that
came out after studying the problem in some depth."
He said the July 1987 flight resumption, which had been NASA's plan
when he became administrator two months ago, "was a little optimistic
in view of the extensive tests that have to be done on the solid
rocket motors before we feel comfortable flying again."
The interim report is expected to help the administration decide what
to do about building a replacement for Challenger. The accident left
the shuttle fleet with only three vehicles and unable to launch
satellites.
A replacement for Challenger and enhancing the shuttle spare parts
inventory would cost $2.5 billion.
Fletcher said he discussed the replacement shuttle extensively at the
White House, but that there was no decision.
"As I said, I'm not sure I want to go ahead with the fourth orbiter
if it comes out of NASA's other programs," Fletcher said.
The first recommendation of the Challenger commission, headed by
former Secretary of State William P. Rogers, was that "the faulty
solid rocket motor joint and seal must be changed" and that "no
design options should be prematurely precluded because of schedule,
cost or reliance on existing hardware."
A leak in a joint on the right booster rocket of Challenger allowed
hot gases to escape, causing the main fuel tank to explode in the
74th second of flight from Cape Canaveral, Fla. All seven astronauts
aboard, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe, were killed.
NASA said emphasis on the rocket booster designs is on testing and
that, in addition to tests with subscale rockets and with full-scale
rocket segments, there will be at least "four full-scale hot static
hot firing tests."
The agency said it had not decided whether these tests would be
conducted with the rocket in the horizontal position - as had been
done before - or vertically - one of the recommendations of the
commission.
"The preferred configuration is anticipated to be proposed in late
July 1986," the report said. "Two of these full-scale tests will
contain all system changes."
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| That is at least mildly encouraging. One thing, however: An article
I read yesterday speculated that Reagan really thinks there is no
money for a new shuttle. However, now that Congress must vote on
Gramm-Rudman sequestrations, he feels that they will see the new
orbiter as an easy $2.5B to cut since "the space program has little
constituency". Thus, his plan is to be encouraging and look pro-space
but to let Congress do the dirty work of denying the orbiter.
I hate politics. Looks like it is time to show Congress that there
is a space constituency, though.
Burns
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