Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Space Station Cuts Planned, Paper Says

NASA’s planned space station will be even smaller and more modest because of budget cuts and newly discovered design flaws, a newspaper reported. Until last year, the plan called for a 508-foot-long, 300-ton orbiting outpost housing up to eight astronauts. The station was to be placed in space piecemeal by the space shuttle would have cost $37 billion, not including operating expenses. Under the new plan, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would reduce the station’s size and cost and reduce its astronaut crew by half, the New York Times reported in today’s editions.