Space Board Calls for Unmanned Launches for Scientific Payloads

The United States should turn away from the space shuttle and make expendable launch vehicles the primary means of sending scientific payloads into space, the National Research Council’s Space Science Board recommended Wednesday.

The formal statement, circulated among key Administration and congressional officials last week, was timed to get attention as the Administration is charting its course for recovery from the Jan. 28 Challenger shuttle disaster.

Space Science Board Chairman Thomas M. Donahue of the University of Michigan stressed that the board was “most emphatically not taking a position against people in space” but said that there are many missions for which the shuttle system is unsuited.

‘Devastating Effect’

“The board, and scientists in general, have been worried for years about the devastating effect of the decision to phase out unmanned launch vehicles--so-called expendable launch vehicles--for launching scientific missions,” Donahue told reporters Wednesday.

“We are calling for a drastic change in policy that would once more make expendable launch vehicles the primary system for launching scientific spacecraft. We want the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to get involved in designing and contracting for such spacecraft the way the Department of Defense is involved on behalf of national security payloads.”

Donahue said NASA’s decision to phase out unmanned launching vehicles and replace them with the shuttle has already caused a major hiatus in space science projects.

Last week, in a meeting with a National Security Council panel working on the space crisis, President Reagan asked for more information before making a decision on issues such as replacing the shuttle lost in the launching accident and the funding for new unmanned launching vehicles.

In the absence of a presidential declaration, NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher has repeatedly ranked the Challenger replacement at the top of the space agency’s agenda.

10 Titans Ordered

The Air Force has already ordered 10 new Titan expendable missiles, and Donahue called Wednesday for the space agency to acquire the same or similar unmanned rockets for launching scientific payloads on planetary missions.

“We are simply recommending that the United States reserve manned flight for those missions in which human resources are clearly needed and diversify our launch capabilities to assure that a single tragic accident cannot again cripple the entire space program, civilian and military,” he said.

He refused to say flatly, however, whether he believes that the Administration should replace the lost shuttle or use the money for expendable rockets, if it is forced to choose.

The Space Science Board is undertaking a separate study on that issue for a House Appropriations subcommittee and will report to Congress by Oct. 15--indicating that Congress may be months away from deciding what to do about a replacement orbiter.

At present, NASA is projecting that its remaining three shuttles will return to flight status in July, 1987, 18 months after the Challenger catastrophe brought the space program to a virtual standstill.

It is already confronted by a mounting backlog of payloads, and officials have indicated that national security launchings will be given priority over commercial and scientific payloads when flight is resumed.

The Space Science Board’s call for a return to unmanned launching vehicles was made on the eve of another report to President Reagan suggesting that the United States undertake a long-range space exploration program leading to a manned base on Mars about 40 years from now.

That report, prepared by the presidential National Commission on Space, named more than a year ago, was planned for release in early April but was delayed by the Administration.

However, although the commission, headed by former NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, waited to formally submit the document to the President, it was mistakenly released by Bantam Books, the publishing house that had prepared it for sale for $17.95. Although copies of it were mailed to journalists and book reviewers across the country, the commission has postponed an official release until Paine presents the document to Reagan today.

Space Station Transport

The report, which had been effectively completed at the time of the Challenger accident, recommends that the United States proceed from the shuttle to development of new cargo and passenger transport vehicles to fly between Earth and orbiting space stations.

It foresees the United States’ having a permanent outpost on the moon by the year 2005 and eventual use of a lunar base for the production of rocket propellants for exploration deeper into space.

The commission further envisions the development of huge spaceports orbiting the moon and Mars, supporting operations on the Martian surface.