NASA Project Costs Skyrocket to $30 Billion : Environment: The Administration seeks a review of the plan to collect data on global warming. The program may have to be cut back.

The price tag of a system to gather crucial new data on global climate warming has soared to more than $30 billion from an original estimate of about $12 billion, and the Bush Administration has asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the skyrocketing cost and the possibility of using smaller, less expensive satellites, Administration sources said Thursday.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth Observation System stands to be the biggest, most expensive space science project ever undertaken, and it has generated enthusiastic support among environmental scientists and government agencies studying global climate change. But the new estimates of eventual cost have produced “sticker shock” among members of Congress who handle the space budget.

Officials of the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Space Council discussed the problem with National Academy of Sciences President Frank Press two weeks ago. White House science adviser D. Allan Bromley is expected to formally request the academy review as early as today.

Meanwhile, Administration and congressional sources said Thursday that the President’s fiscal 1991 budget to be sent to Congress on Monday will propose a whopping 24% increase in this year’s $10.9-billion space agency allocation. That would give the civilian space program about $13.6 billion for the coming year, when it proposes to press ahead with development of its manned space station and explore new missions while starting development of the new earth observation platform.

The EOS program has been under intensive study for the last two years, but it is expected to get its first big funding in the Administration’s budget next week.

The exact figure being requested in the new budget could not be learned Thursday, but congressional sources familiar with NASA planning said they expected it will be in the neighborhood of $250 million--enough to make NASA the biggest environmental research agency in the government.

Aside from the escalating estimate of the program’s 15-year cost, Administration and congressional officials are concerned because the first EOS platform will not be ready for launch before mid-1997.

Some questions have been raised about whether it would be preferable to use smaller and less expensive single or dual-purpose satellites rather than concentrate spending so heavily on the sophisticated EOS platform, which is to gather data on clouds, oceans and the remote areas of the earth’s major land masses.

The EOS program has its origins in the manned space station project, which once envisioned polar-orbiting science platforms working in collaboration with the station. The science satellites were dropped in an effort to control the space station cost, but the idea was resurrected in wake of the 1986 Challenger disaster.

A study by former astronaut Sally K. Ride proposed a “mission to planet earth” as a top priority for the space agency, and the National Academy of Sciences put forth similar recommendations to apply space technology to earth science and environmental issues. With the upsurge in concern that pollution might cause a destructive warming of the earth’s atmosphere, the EOS program has become a compelling undertaking.

As presently planned, the EOS platforms would be loaded with about 10 sophisticated scientific instruments. They would be too big and heavy to be launched by the space shuttle, and instead would be fired into polar orbit by a Titan 4 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The academy also will be asked to review the ability of the computer and communications network on earth to handle the massive output of information from the EOS, and the cost.

Each satellite will send down 10 trillion bytes of data every day, and the program plans for two satellites to be in operation for 15 years. Besides the huge American platforms, two smaller systems belonging to the European Space Agency, and one to the Japanese, will be making similar observations to be fed into international climate modeling efforts.

In other issues, White House officials disclosed Thursday that it will increase by 10% the spending on government-wide efforts to improve the quality of government statistics.

It now spends between $400 million and $500 million on the collection of crucial statistics, such as productivity, economic output, inflation, poverty rates and foreign trade.

Although the economic data is probably the best in the world, the government has come under increasing criticism for allowing its collection to deteriorate in the face of federal budget cuts.

Michael J. Boskin, President Bush’s chief economic adviser, told reporters that underlying economic trends, such as the shift toward a service-oriented economy, has made it more difficult to accurately portray what is happening.

The Administration has prepared a list of about 25 recommendations aimed at upgrading the quality of the information provided the public. “I view this as an investment in good government,” Boskin said.

Staff writers Robert Stewart and Tom Redburn contributed to this story.