NASA Is Expected to Name Ex-Astronaut Shuttle Chief

Rear Adm. Richard H. Truly, a veteran of two space shuttle missions who now heads the Naval Space Command, will be named today to succeed Jesse Moore as the NASA associate administrator in charge of the shuttle program, sources said Wednesday.

The move, to be announced at a news conference by acting NASA Administrator William R. Graham, comes as the space agency is racked by bureaucratic infighting, even as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of the Challenger disaster.

Moore is the NASA official who gave final approval for the Challenger’s launch. Five days before the Jan. 28 explosion, the agency had announced that Moore would become director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, widely regarded as one of the space agency’s premier jobs.

That Jan. 23 announcement said Moore would continue as chief of shuttle operations through two crucial missions in May and June--the Ulysses and Galileo science probes to study the sun and Jupiter. Those missions, like all shuttle flights, have been suspended as investigators seek the cause of the explosion that killed the Challenger’s seven-member crew.

According to several sources, the timing of Truly’s appointment reflects the concern of top Reagan Administration officials about apparent disarray and discord within the agency as it comes under intense scrutiny by congressional committees and a presidential commission headed by former Secretary of State William P. Rogers.

On Saturday, Rogers said the decision-making process leading to Challenger’s launch “may have been flawed” and asked NASA to remove all launch-related officials from its internal task force analyzing the disaster.

Moore, who has been in the national spotlight since the Challenger tragedy, told a Senate committee Tuesday that when he gave the launch approval he was unaware that abnormally low temperatures were being recorded on the right solid rocket booster in the final hours of the countdown.

On Wednesday, Rogers said in a statement that key NASA officials had not been informed that engineers for the rocket manufacturer recommended against launching Challenger because of concern that cold weather might stiffen the rubber O-ring gaskets used to prevent 5,900-degree gases from escaping from joints in the rockets. That scenario has emerged as a main focus of investigators trying to determine the cause of the explosion.

NASA said Graham would hold a news conference today “to announce a major appointment.” Shirley Green, the agency’s chief spokesman, refused Wednesday to elaborate, but officials at the White House and elsewhere in the Administration confirmed Truly’s selection as Moore’s successor.

Commanded Challenger

Truly, 48, who became a NASA astronaut in 1969, was commander of Challenger in August, 1983, when it made the first shuttle landing at night. Two years earlier, he also commanded the shuttle Columbia’s second flight.

Then a Navy captain, he later was promoted to rear admiral and named commander of the Naval Space Command, a unit headquartered in Dahlgren, Va., that supervises the Navy’s extensive use of satellites for communications and intelligence operations. A native of Mississippi and a graduate of Georgia Tech, he joined the Navy in 1960 and was a carrier-based fighter pilot before becoming an astronaut.

Truly’s office in Virginia said Wednesday he was en route to Washington and could not be reached for comment.

At the time of the Challenger disaster, NASA Administrator James M. Beggs was on leave to fight a criminal indictment dating from his days as an aerospace industry executive, and Graham, who became acting administrator, had barely two months of government experience.

Beggs has not formally resigned, but sources said he has indicated his willingness to do so, clearing the way for President Reagan to appoint a new administrator--”a white knight,” one official said--to take command of the demoralized space program.

Bureaucratic Spats

Even as the agency has sought to cope with the emotional trauma of the disaster and the revelations of investigating panels, it has been entangled in nasty bureaucratic spats.

According to several sources, Graham rebuffed Beggs’ offers of advice and barred Beggs from a NASA jet flying to Houston for memorial services for the Challenger crew, forcing him to catch a ride on another plane with a congressional delegation.

Since then, Graham has become involved in a dispute with Philip E. Culbertson, a career NASA manager who had been designated by Beggs as NASA’s general manager. Graham reportedly removed Culbertson from the agency’s chain of command last weekend on grounds he had not kept the acting administrator informed on such issues as the discovery that the Challenger’s problems may have involved the booster rocket’s O-rings.

Culbertson did not respond to telephone calls, but several of his NASA colleagues said the problems stem from Graham’s lack of experience and his distrust of Beggs’ associates.

Moore joined NASA in 1966 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where he helped develop the Galileo Jupiter probe, and then came to the agency’s Washington headquarters in 1978. He has been associate administrator for space flight since August, 1984, when he succeeded Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, who now is in charge of President Reagan’s so-called “Star Wars” space defense program.