NASA Officials, Critics Agree Shuttle Is Safer

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials and agency critics expressed the belief Sunday that the safety of the space shuttle program has been greatly improved and said “man-made risks” threaten the space program less now than when the shuttle blew up in 1986.

Space agency officials cautioned, however, that there might be several delays before the next launch takes place, probably some time later this month. And they denied that they had come under political pressure to resume shuttle flights before the presidential election.

The manned space program “has a better basis for safety and less risks than it had previously,” said Rear Adm. Richard H. Truly, NASA’s associate administrator for spaceflight. “We have looked at the program from top to bottom, from stem to stern.”

‘Risk Has Been Minimized’

Jack Lousma, a former space shuttle commander, said that “the risk has been minimized to the extent that it can be, and if I had the chance to fly in it tomorrow, I’d do it, no question about it.”

Critics of NASA also praised the safety of the revitalized shuttle program. Robert B. Hotz, a member of the commission that investigated the agency after the 1986 Challenger disaster, said NASA needs to improve its management but conceded that it “has done a good job of screening out the avoidable risks.

“The big change in the shuttle program under Adm. Truly was to get an experienced flight man running the program,” he said, during an appearance with the two other men on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

To demonstrate their caution, NASA officials revealed Sunday that there might be a few weather delays before the space shuttle Discovery is finally launched. In recent simulated tests, weather conditions at Cape Canaveral would have prevented a safe launch, they said.

‘Wait Until We Have it Right’

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it took us two or three times to get airborne,” Truly said. “We’re going to wait until we have it right and then we’re going to do it. I think the American people expect that of us.”

Truly also denied any suggestions that the shuttle launch date was deliberately set before the election to benefit Vice President George Bush’s campaign. “I’ve felt a lot of stresses in the last 2 1/2 years,” he said, “but thank God that’s not one of them.”

Asked what he would say if such a call came from a high official, Truly replied: “I’d say: ‘Not on my watch.’ ”

The spaceflight administrator conceded, however, that he faces tough opposition from Congress on NASA’s next big project, the proposed $30-billion space station. In view of the nation’s $150-billion budget deficit, he said, the space agency “will have to compete with all other parts of the economy” for funding.

Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that has charge of the space program, said many of the scientific experiments to be conducted aboard the space station could be completed for less money if they were contracted out to private industry.

International Effort Urged

Proxmire said it costs an exorbitant $350 million per launch to run the shuttle program and build a manned space station. He suggested that an alternative would be for NASA to build the proposed station with other nations.

“This is something that could be done. The Soviet Union could pay for a larger share of it, maybe 25%. We pay 25%. Other countries pay their share. That would reduce the burden of the deficit, which is our No. 1 problem, in my view, today,” Proxmire said. Such a partnership would also discourage the notion that the United States has to be “first” in every aspect of space exploration, said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

“Why shouldn’t we go with the Japanese and the Germans and so forth?” Logsdon said on the same broadcast. “This is a human problem, not a United States problem. I think the days of racing to a place are over.”

Aim for Predictability

Logsdon said a successful shuttle launch this month will take a great psychological burden off NASA. But he cautioned that the real challenge will be to get the shuttle up regularly and predictably, given its great cost.

At that point, Logsdon said, the nation will face even more difficult questions.

“What are the long-term purposes of this program?” he said. “We can’t cooperate (on a space station project) with others until we have a strong program ourselves. And that--a strong articulation of purposes and priorities--can only come from the President.”