Reagan to Propose Second U.S.-Soviet Space Mission

President Reagan intends to invite the Soviet Union to plan another joint space mission, similar to the Apollo-Soyuz flight of 1975 but involving the rendezvous of the U.S. shuttle and a Soviet space station, White House and space agency officials said Monday.

Reagan’s offer may be made as early as this week, the officials said. It follows a similar proposal that the Soviets rejected early last year.

“The President is committed to the idea,” one White House official said. “It’s just a matter of timing now” on when to issue the invitation, he added, confirming a report in the current issue of Aviation Week magazine.

In last year’s proposal, Reagan had suggested that the two nations take part in a “joint simulated space rescue mission” in which U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts would practice a “combined operation in space to develop techniques to rescue people” in case of spacecraft malfunctions. In declining that offer, the Soviets “indicated they had higher-priority concerns regarding U.S.-Soviet relations,” the White House official said.

Now, the White House apparently sees hopes for a positive Soviet response--presumably in the wake of Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s talks this week in Geneva with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko aimed at resuming U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations.

The initial U.S.-Soviet agreement on space cooperation, signed in 1972 at the height of detente, led to the successful rendezvous in orbit of three Apollo astronauts and two Soyuz cosmonauts.

The five-year agreement was extended in 1977 and included plans to prepare for a joint mission with the next generation of spacecraft, the U.S. shuttle and the Soviet Salyut space station. But the Reagan Administration declined to renew the agreement in 1982.

Soviet Rocket Accident

Reagan’s original proposal followed a September, 1983, accident in which a Soviet manned rocket launcher exploded on the pad, with its cosmonauts narrowly escaping injury, and subsequent reports--erroneous, as it turned out--that cosmonauts orbiting at the time in the Salyut 7 space station might be stranded because of the aborted launch.

After the White House requested a quick feasibility study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration determined that the shuttle could rescue the Soviet cosmonauts, if called upon.

Reagan reportedly had hoped to announce his initial offer for a new joint space flight last January in his State of the Union message, but the Soviet rejection precluded that plan.

Subsequently, a group of senators called upon him to pursue efforts for a joint mission to rescue stranded astronauts. Their resolution passed Congress and was signed by Reagan in October, reviving the plan to make a new overture to the Soviets, according to White House and NASA officials.