Shuttle Port’s ‘Mothballing’ Costs Analyzed

Closing the $3.3-billion West Coast space shuttle port would save money initially but it would take years to return the facility to launch status, a new government report says.

Shutting down the launch facilities at this northern Santa Barbara County base would save 10% of the cost needed to keep them in the planned “operational caretaker” status, the General Accounting Office said in a 16-page report made public Friday.

But closure would add 30 months to the time needed before a first launch, said the report prepared at the request of Sen. Jim Sasser, (D-Tenn.).

State of Readiness

“The report documents the need to keep the Vandenberg launch complex in a state of readiness, with a view toward a launch in 1992,” said Sen. Pete Wilson, (R-Calif.) and California Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino, (R-Ojai) in a joint statement released Friday.

The study, based on Air Force and National Aeronautics and Space Administration documents and interviews, shows that the military estimates that the difference between the cost of a complete shutdown and caretaker status to be about $127 million for the period between October, 1987, and October, 1991.

Caretaker status, with about 850 shuttle ground servicing workers, would cost $1.1 billion to maintain, and preparations for a launch would add $114 million, for a total of about $1.2 billion, the report said.

Caretaker Status

Launch readiness could be achieved in 18 months if kept in a caretaker status, the report said. If shut down, however, it would take 48 months to prepare for a launch.

About 150 workers would lose their jobs and it would cost $484 million to maintain the facilities if the shuttle base is shut down, the report said.

The report said none of the figures include “costs of possible major modifications resulting from reviews of the Challenger accident or full funding for some possible solutions to the hydrogen entrapment problem.”