NASA Offers Scaled-Down Blueprint of Space Station

NASA on Wednesday unveiled a new blueprint for the $8-billion manned space station 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.

The United States will build modules for habitation, logistics and for 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.

Station’s Design

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

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 said the new station design was dictated by budget constraints, which also have pushed from 1992 to 1994 the initial operational target with the U.S. modules. The other modules would be in place by 1996.

‘Immediate Challenge’

“We have set our sights on the future, but make no mistake, that future could be in jeopardy if we do not respond effectively to our immediate challenge--to restore this nation’s launch capabilities in the wake of the Challenger (explosion) and the expendable rocket accidents,” Fletcher said.

He said July, 1987, is the target for resuming shuttle flights, “but, of course, only if we are assured that we can do so, safely and reliably.”

John Hodge, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s space station office, said 14 shuttle flights, starting in late 1992 or 1993, will be necessary to construct the station.