End Monopoly on Boosters, NASA Urged

More than half the House called on NASA today to break a monopoly held by Morton Thiokol Inc., which made the booster blamed for the shuttle accident, and to seek a second builder of the solid-fuel rockets.

The 258 House members made their request in a letter to NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher a day before the Rogers Commission was to send its report to the White House tracking the Challenger explosion to a booster rocket design flaw.

Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) said other companies seeking a share of the business have estimated that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could save hundreds of millions of dollars through the 1990s with a second booster source.

“At stake are real savings to the taxpayer and a more reliable source of boosters that will help protect future shuttle schedules,” Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) said at a news conference.

Tom Russell, spokesman at Morton Thiokol headquarters in Chicago, said “everyone should keep in mind” that NASA will face extra facility, tooling and testing costs with a second source of boosters.

Competitive Advantages Cited

The House members’ letter noted that the space agency announced plans last year to seek a second booster source but the congressmen were critical of competitive advantages it said the agency is providing to Morton Thiokol, which builds the boosters at Brigham City, Utah.

These advantages, the letter said, “cause us to question whether NASA has designed a second source procurement which is self-defeating to its intended purpose.

“In short, NASA set up a process to kill the competition, a process whose only purpose is to perpetuate Morton Thiokol’s monopoly,” Fazio said.

Each shuttle flight requires two booster rockets. Morton Thiokol has said the booster cost per mission in 1984 was $18 million, but Russell said, “Our costs are substantially lower now.”