Several Concerned Sources Seek Ways to Get NASA Back on Track

The failure of the Hubble Space Telescope and the grounding of the space shuttle fleet are shaking congressional confidence in the space program just as lawmakers search for ways to redirect defense spending to civilian science.

The Hubble and shuttle troubles also have prompted top Bush Administration officials to begin searching for ways to reinvigorate the U.S. space program, an Administration source said Sunday.

The White House may enlist a team of space experts from outside government to aid that review, said the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

There is still widespread support for space exploration in Congress, and until its recent problems the National Aeronautics and Space Administration seemed to be recovering from the black eye it received from the 1986 Challenger explosion that killed seven crew members.

Rep. Michael A. Andrews (D-Tex.), whose congressional district is home to thousands of NASA workers, said: “We were right on the edge of what all of us thought would be a new chapter at NASA.”

Now, Andrews said last week, cost overruns and defects in the Hubble and shuttle programs make the space agency look like “just one more big bureaucracy.”

The Administration source Sunday said Vice President Dan Quayle, as chairman of the National Space Council, and Adm. Richard H. Truly, the former astronaut who heads NASA, are leading the internal effort to find ways to get the space program back on track.

The decision has not yet been made to convene a blue-ribbon panel of experts, the source said.