NASA Unveils, Shrinks Plans for Space Station

NASA today unveiled a new blueprint for the $8-billion manned space station that it plans to assemble in orbit in the 1990s with help from Japan, Europe and Canada.

The model is a scaled-down version of a larger facility envisioned earlier, and it is designed so a permanent crew does not have to be on board from the beginning, which had been a feature of the earlier plan.

Initially, the station, as long and as wide as a football field, will have five major pressurized modules instead of seven, but it will be built for growth, with additional modules to be added later.

Building Responsibilities

The United States will build modules for habitation, logistics and microgravity research; the European Space Agency, a consortium of 10 nations, will supply a life sciences module; Japan will provide an advanced technology module, and Canada will develop a satellite servicing and repair center.

The modules and service center will be clustered amid an array of giant metal trusses to which solar panels, power stations, antennas, and experiment and equipment bays will be attached.

There also are plans for four free-flying platforms, two provided by the United States and two by the Europeans.

The station will accommodate up to eight people.

In introducing the new design at a news conference, NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher said it is “responsive to what I understand to be the desire of some in Congress to demonstrate a way of initially tending the space station through periodic crew visits, rather than having a permanent crew on board at the beginning.”

Fletcher spoke at NASA headquarters in Washington. The news conference was monitored by reporters here and at other agency centers.

Fletcher said the new station design was dictated by budget constraints.