Conference 7.286::space

208.0. "NASA Reviews Space Station" by CYGNUS::ALLEGREZZA (George Allegrezza, ISWS Writing Services) Thu Aug 21 1986 12:08

Associated Press Thu 21-AUG-1986 01:26                          Space Station

NASA Launches Review of Space Station Design

By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is
going back to the drawing board to answer critics of its proposed $8
billion space station, forming two teams to ``critically examine'' all
aspects of the plans. 

A task force of 35 people will work full time and hundreds of others
part-time on desig and assembly concepts, NASA said Wednesday. Another
group, including representatives of engineering organizations at five NASA
centers and the astronaut office, will oversee the task force efforts. 

The agency's new space station chief, Andrew J. Stofan, said, ``The task
force will critically examine all aspects of the current space station
baseline configuration.'' 

NASA plans to issue requests for contractor proposals in the fiscal year
that begins Oct. 1. It said the two new groups' findings will be taken into
account in seeking those bids. 

On July 31, after the Texas congressional delegation objected to plans it
said would have shifted about 1,900 prospective jobs from Houston, NASA
Administrator James C. Fletcher put the space station program on hold for
90 days for a review. 

He had planned to move significant responsibilities from the Johnson Space
Center in Houston to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. 

Some NASA officials, contractors and astronauts have wanted the space
station project scaled down, saying it is headed for serious cost and
operational trouble if it is built as envisioned. 

In addition, engineers and astronauts had raised questions about the United
States' ability to carry out the design. 

Astronaut Gordon Fullerton, who led a study as part of his assignment, said
morale is poor in the space station program and that ``there is great
concern that NASA is misrepresenting what we can do, to the Congress and to
the public.'' 

Fullerton said there is a strong feeling that the plan was to press on with
the existing design and make changes later. That, he said, would be
politically and morally wrong. 

``NASA has been criticized severely lately for letting program objectives
override good judgment,'' Fullerton said. ``Is it happening again?'' 

NASA had expected to have the space station in orbit and operational by
1994. But that target might not be met because of cost considerations and
because of the Jan. 28 Challenger explosion, which reduced from four to
three the number of shuttles available to carry materials aloft. 

Engineers have been designing the nature and use of the space station since
April 1985. Contracts to be let next spring would be more detailed. 

Fullerton wants the design simplified to require only six shuttle flights
to assemble the station instead of the 20 envisioned in current plan and
less need for astronauts working in open space to do routine maintenance. 

He also suggested that instead of taking small modules in the space shuttle
cargo bay to leave in orbit, a powerful rocket be designed to put up one or
two large modules. 

NASA said the task force will look at all that and more.