House Saves Plan for Space Station : Science: Restored funding is major victory for Bush Administration. The 240-173 vote reverses a committee decision to eliminate nearly all spending for the project.

In a major victory for the Bush Administration, NASA, an Orange County aerospace company and supporters of the nation’s manned space program, the House voted Thursday to save the proposed Space Station Freedom.

The 240-173 vote reversed a decision earlier this week by the House Appropriations Committee to eliminate nearly all funding for the station from the budget for fiscal year 1992, which begins Oct. 1. The House vote followed intense lobbying by Administration officials and NASA allies on Capitol Hill.

“There was simply not the feeling in Congress to concede America’s leadership in space,” said Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), a committee member who, along with Rep. Jim Chapman (D-Tex.), led the fight to rescue the station. The program is expected to cost $30 billion through the year 2000.

The decision was greeted with relief at McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. in Huntington Beach, which holds space station contracts worth at least $3.4 billion and employs 2,000 people in the station program.

“The debate was outstanding. I think it was as emotional as the civil rights issue” addressed by the House earlier in the week, said McDonnell Douglas spokesman Thomas E. Williams.

All five Orange County congressmen--Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) and Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad)--voted to save the space station.

The $1.9 billion in 1992 funding restored by the Lowery-Chapman amendment, which will come almost exclusively from other NASA programs, must still be approved by the Senate. However, supporters said the lopsided House vote, which had been expected to be close, will give the station added momentum in the Senate.

The vote to save the station was bipartisan, as 107 Democrats joined 133 Republicans to form the majority. Twenty-seven Republicans, 145 Democrats and one independent opposed the funding.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration regards the station, which would be an orbiting “Erector set” of work modules and shimmering solar panels hung from a giant metal truss, as the centerpiece of its planned space exploration efforts through the early 21st Century. It is intended to serve as an orbiting laboratory for experiments in life sciences and microgravity, as well as a jumping off point for a return to the moon and a possible manned mission to Mars.

House critics charged during the six-hour debate, however, that in tough economic times the nation can no longer afford to pay for massive science projects at the expense of social programs and smaller, less-glamorous scientific endeavors.

“I absolutely object to the efforts to restore funding for this project on the backs of the least fortunate members of our society,” said Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio). Stokes is a member of the appropriations subcommittee that three weeks ago slashed all but $100 million of the $2 billion that the Bush Administration had requested for the space station program in fiscal 1992.

“If we had funded the station,” said Rep. Bob Traxler (D-Mich.), the subcommittee chairman, “the subcommittee would have made drastic cuts in the Veterans Affairs medical care, environmental and medical programs in the Environmental Protection Agency, in the National Science Foundation.”

Others echoed the complaints of scientists who have argued that the scaled-back version of the station, which was redesigned to cut costs, cannot adequately carry out the basic scientific mission for which it was intended.

One critic, Rep. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), called the station a “WPA for the aerospace industry,” referring to the massive public works program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

But the predominant images paraded through the House during the often acrimonious debate were those of the expanding American frontier and the people who explored it.

“Do we have the courage and the vision to move forward with the manned exploration of space?” asked Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Penn.). “That’s the question before the House today.”

Added Chapman: “I believe a vote to abandon the centerpiece of U.S. space policy . . . is tantamount to destroying our manned space program.”

Packard, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology who represents South Orange County, said, “The social and environmental demands of this country . . . could use up every dollar in our budget . . . but it would be shortsighted to leave out space.”

Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton), who chairs that committee, argued that canceling the station would seriously jeopardize future international scientific ventures. The governments of Japan and Canada and members of the European Space Agency are partners in the station venture and have pledged to contribute about $8 billion to the effort.

In addition to McDonnell Douglas, a second Southern California aerospace contractor had a substantial stake in Thursday’s House action. Rockwell International’s Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park has a $1.6-billion contract in the space station program.

McDonnell Douglas is under contract to provide the station’s propulsion, navigation, communications and other key systems, in addition to the 353-foot-long metal truss that will act as the station’s backbone.

The Bush Administration had threatened to veto the $80.9-billion spending bill for housing, veterans affairs and other agencies, including NASA, unless the House included the space station funds.

Lowery and Chapman restored the station funds largely at the expense of other NASA programs. Their amendment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs and independent agencies froze NASA spending at 1991 levels.

In effect, the amendment rescinded all increases for other NASA programs that had been requested by the Bush Administration and approved by the Appropriations Committee, and turned the extra money over to the space station program.

INDUSTRY REACTION: Continued funding for the space station brightens aerospace industry prospects. D1