Pentagon Seeks to Expand Satellite-Launching Ability

The Pentagon is asking Congress for $961 million in the next two years to expand the military’s satellite-launching program to replace capacity lost by the grounding of the space shuttle, according to congressional testimony released Sunday.

Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge told a Senate Armed Services panel that a recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration estimate pushing back the resumption of space shuttle flights to June, 1988, reducing the maximum number of flights per year to 14 and lowering the payload weight per flight would result in far fewer missions for the Defense Department.

To make up for the lost capacity, the Air Force will need a new fleet of 10 rockets with medium-lifting capacity, he said. The new rockets would launch components of the Defense Satellite Communications Systems, the main audio and video link for U.S. land and sea forces around the world.

Delta 2 Rocket Contract

In January, the Air Force awarded a $1-billion contract to McDonnell Douglas Corp. to build a fleet of Delta 2 rockets, also considered to have a medium-lifting capacity.

The Delta 2s will be used to launch Navstar satellites, which enable U.S. aircraft and ships to navigate more accurately and aim weapons more precisely. The first launching is planned for next fall.

As a result of the latest space shuttle estimates, the Air Force--in addition to the 10 new rockets--wants five more Delta 2s. It also wants to increase the production of heavy-lifting Titan 4s from six per year to 10 per year through 1995, Aldridge said.

“We request your support for adjustments to the fiscal year 1988 budget by $316 million and to the fiscal year 1989 budget by $645 million,” Aldridge told the subcommittee on strategic forces and nuclear deterrence.

“This support will enable us to . . . work off the backlog of national security payloads by the early 1990s,” he said.

The Air Force also needs to refurbish its Titan 4 launching pad at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and to build a second launching pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, Calif., he said.

Aldridge made the remarks during a closed session of the panel last week. He referred to it later in a speech to the National Security Industrial Assn., an industry group.

The Air Force released the testimony and a copy of Aldridge’s remarks to the association after the New York Times published a story on the subject Saturday.

The newspaper quoted unidentified Pentagon officials as saying General Dynamics Corp., McDonnell Douglas and Martin Marietta are among the leading candidates for building the new rocket fleet, called the Medium-Lift Vehicle 2.

Even with the new rocket, Aldridge warned the Senate panel: “The recovery program I’ve outlined does not include any slack or excess capacity through the early 1990s. It is just adequate to launch the minimum number of payloads we now know must be launched by 1995.”