NASA Changes Focus on Space’s Commercial Use

In a major organizational shift, NASA announced guidelines Friday to ensure smooth development of commercial space activities with a heavy emphasis on potentially lucrative materials science.

Deputy Administrator Dale D. Myers said the importance of the virtually gravity-free space environment to new technology development warranted special treatment within the agency.

In a memorandum to agency managers, Myers directed that all National Aeronautics and Space Administration research, development and applications that rely on weightlessness “will henceforth be focused in the Office of Space Science and Applications” instead of being split up among other divisions.

Operations Consolidated

In addition, the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology will transfer continuing weightlessness programs to the space science division and the Office of Commercial Programs will give up technical oversight of all such research.

“This decision reflected the intent of NASA management to give microgravity a very high priority in NASA flight research activity for both shuttle and the space station,” NASA spokesman Kenneth Atchinson said.

By working in the weightless environment of space, exotic materials can be produced that would be impossible, overly expensive or difficult on Earth, such as new semiconductor crystals.

Myers also announced new policies governing how payload space will be allocated on new unmanned launchers and reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to encouraging commercial use of the high frontier despite a decision by President Reagan last year to bar commercial satellites from shuttle launch.

Such satellites in the future will have to rely on unmanned boosters for the ride into orbit. But NASA’s space program still has room for research and other development activities.