SCIENCE/ TECHNOLOGY : Space Station Budget Cuts Criticized by Symposium Members

Congress’ decision to cut the budget of space station Freedom isn’t very popular in the aerospace community, judging from comments at a symposium Saturday that addressed aspects of the $37-billion project.

Congress cut the space station budget from $2.45 billion to $1.9 billion for the current year and ordered NASA to submit a redesigned station by the end of January.

Charles (Pete) Conrad Jr., a former Gemini and Apollo astronaut who is now a staff vice president for new business at McDonnell Douglas Space Systems in Huntington Beach, said the mandate to redesign the space station is “a bunch of junk.”

“I like to say the future is running a little late,” Conrad said, noting that the NASA budget was cut sharply during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. “We’re 25 years behind schedule and we’re about to make it worse. I don’t understand what Congress is up to.”

The symposium in Huntington Beach was sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the Human Factors Society, a group involved in efforts to design products and equipment that suit human needs.

Conrad said the reduced budget could also affect decisions by international players, such as Japan and the European Space Agency, to continue their participation in the program.

Other sources at the symposium, which included a tour of McDonnell Douglas’ mock-up of the space station, said a space station redesign would lack the years of research and billions of dollars already spent on the program.

If NASA goes forward with plans to shorten the 508-foot truss assembly that serves as the main framework for the station, then McDonnell Douglas could see an impact on its work force, sources said. McDonnell Douglas is leading a team of contractors that are building a major portion of the station, including the truss assembly.

But Tom Williams, a spokesman for McDonnell Douglas, said speculation that the company could trim its work force is inaccurate. The company expects to maintain its current employment on the project, he said.

“Our position is we can build a very good space station with $15.7 billion” in funding through 1996, Williams said.

The company, which employs 2,000 people on the space station in Huntington Beach and Houston, has frozen its hiring on the program.