Scaled-Down Space Station Gets Go-Ahead

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration received approval from President Reagan Friday to proceed with a scaled-down version of its much-debated space station, which has been threatened by escalating cost estimates and a tight budget.

After weeks of deliberation within the Reagan Administration, the White House told the space agency that it could seek congressional approval to solicit industry designs for an eight-man station that could be ready for occupancy in the mid-1990s at a cost of about $10.9 billion.

Legislation written by congressional appropriations committees, demanding early scientific return from a U.S. space station, require the space agency to get explicit approval before asking potential contractors to submit design proposals.

NASA spokesman Mark Hess said Friday that the new “base line design” has already been sent to Capitol Hill and that discussions will begin Monday to pave the way to move forward with the project m.

When the project was first laid out, it was estimated that a permanently manned orbital station, serviced by the space shuttle fleet, would cost $8 billion. But continuing design studies over three years saw the projected costs mount to $13 billion.

Revised plans sketched by NASA late Friday call for a phased development of the station, with the first launches of station components coming in 1994 and operation by a permanent party of astronauts in 1996.

Schedule Slips a Year

The schedule is a slip of about a year from NASA’s most recent projections, but it left in place the U.S. objective of a permanent human presence in space by the middle of the next decade.

Reagan’s decision has important implications for Southland aerospace businesses. McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. of Huntington Beach and Rockwell International in Downey are two contractors trying to win a $3.4-billion preliminary space station design and framework construction contract that is expected to be awarded before the end of the year.

A McDonnell Douglas spokesman said Friday that if the company wins the contract, it would probably need to add as many as 1,000 new employees to the 6,000 workers at its Huntington Beach plant.

Under the scaled-down design approved by the White House, advanced solar-power generators and a satellite servicing laboratory will be dropped from the basic design.

The Soviet Union has taken a long lead over the United States with its manned station, but the United States, in concert with the European Space Agency and Japan, has hoped to more than match the technology of the Soviet space laboratory.

While simplifying the basic design to control the cost of the station, the space agency said Friday that it will also carry out studies looking toward later expansion of the station.

The National Research Council will also conduct an independent study of NASA’s new cost estimates.

Responsive to Concerns

“This review,” a NASA announcement released Friday said, “will be responsive to the concerns of the Administration, the Congress, potential international participants and users.”

President Reagan’s fiscal 1988 budget asked for $767 million for the project. NASA said that request would not be changed, though the Administration plans to propose legislation calling for a three-year commitment to the project and setting an overall cost ceiling.

Besides the projected cost of $10.9 billion for the revised design, NASA said another $1.3 billion will be required over the next eight years to carry out space station work at NASA field centers.

The escalating cost of the station has come at a difficult time for NASA, for it is in the midst of modifying its space shuttle booster rockets and preparing the shuttle fleet to return to flight status in the wake of the January, 1986, Challenger tragedy.

Although the space station has been planned as the next significant U.S. move forward in the manned exploration of space, NASA officials have been concerned that congressional budget committees might even strike out funding for the program to help meet targets of the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction law.

Times staff writer Carla Lazzareschi contributed to this article from Orange County .