Fourth Shuttle Held Crucial to Space Station

NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher told Congress on Tuesday that the planned U.S. space station must be redesigned if President Reagan does not approve construction of a fourth space shuttle.

“I’m not sure we can actually build the space station with only three space shuttles,” Fletcher said. He noted that he was modifying his previous view that failure to replace the shuttle Challenger, which exploded Jan. 28, would simply mean delaying the planned 1994 opening of the station.

“There is disagreement within NASA on this, but that is my opinion, and I’ve heard all the troops,” Fletcher said. “We might have to come up with a different space station--one that we can build with three orbiters.”

But Fletcher told members of the Senate space subcommittee: “I’m very optimistic that we will have a replacement orbiter.”

Fletcher’s remarks were the latest in his public effort to lobby Administration colleagues and the President on behalf of a fourth orbiter. When he took office three months ago, he said failure to build the orbiter would doom the United States to second-class science and technology in this century.