Bush Seeks Boost for U.S. Commercial Space Business : Industry: Policy aims to put Americans on an equal footing with foreign firms in private-venture rockets and satellites.

President Bush in the next few days is expected to sign a new White House policy directive intended to give a boost to the nation’s beleaguered commercial space industry, Administration sources say.

Developed by the National Space Council under the leadership of Vice President Dan Quayle, the policy establishes guidelines that require the government to act more like a private business in its dealings with space-related enterprises.

It also calls for stepped-up efforts to negotiate trade agreements to reduce or eliminate subsidies provided by foreign governments--including the Soviet Union, China and Japan--to their own commercial satellite launching services.

American companies have complained that foreign governments substantially undercut launch prices offered by private American rocket makers, particularly the big three: McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. of Huntington Beach, General Dynamics Space Systems of San Diego and Martin Marietta Commercial Titan of Denver.

Bush Administration officials said an overriding goal of the policy is to foster development of a commercial space industry in America that can compete effectively throughout the world without being dependent on a steady stream of government business.

“Our interest is in encouraging a commercial space sector that is market-driven,” said one Administration official. “Selling widgets to the government is not the sort of commercial space enterprise we have a long-term interest in.”

America’s commercial space industry, which generated an estimated $3.3 billion in 1990, consists mainly of companies that make communications and remote sensing satellites, and firms that build and launch the rockets that carry the satellites into orbit. In addition to commercial sales, all the companies depend heavily on U.S. government contracts.

The rocket launching segment of the industry has faltered in recent years as the overall world market has shrunk and as foreign competition has increased. Predictions that commercial space ventures would reap billions of dollars by manufacturing exotic pharmaceuticals and industrial materials in outer space have proved greatly overblown.

“We’re out of this era of crazy expectations,” the Administration official said. “You have to work for what you want.” The new commercial space policy, he said, “will make for a much more hospitable environment in which to do that.”

The new policy encourages U.S. government agencies, particularly the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense, to support commercial space activity by:

--Entering into cooperative research and development efforts with private industry and assuming some of the financial risk involved in those ventures.

--Basing contracts with rocket and satellite makers on “performance standards” rather than complex military specifications.

--Taking into account all the government’s overhead and development costs when deciding whether a private company can provide goods or services at less cost than the government.

--Making available to commercial enterprises at a fair price excess government inventory, ranging from rat cages and spectrometers to military rockets.

The rationale behind much of the policy is that U.S. companies can better compete in the open market for private customers if the government moves to eliminate red tape, reduce risks and trim costs in its dealings with the companies.

For example, the use of performance standards instead of detailed specifications means that the government would specify what a company must do, such as placing a satellite in orbit, rather than telling it precisely how to do it.

The biggest immediate problem facing the U.S. commercial space industry remains competition from overseas rocket launchers.

About half of the commercial satellites launched worldwide in 1990 were placed in orbit by Arianespace, a European consortium owned in part by the French space agency. Virtually all of Arianespace’s research and development efforts are conducted and paid for by the 13-member European Space Agency.

The U.S. government so far has refused to allow any of its satellites to be launched by foreign rocket launchers, and it has permitted only limited launches of U.S. commercial satellites by foreign governments.