Yes, the Heavens Will Wait : Redesigned, less complicated and less costly space station is needed

The initial sighs of relief that greeted the Clinton Administration’s assurances of full funding next year for NASA’s planned space station have now been replaced by nagging doubt among project supporters in California’s aerospace industry.

A senior aide to Vice President Al Gore has told congressional staffers that half the $2.25 billion for the space station will go to pay for existing contracts, with the rest used for a redesign--for a new, more fiscally prudent space station in an era of deficit reduction.

The concern expressed by advocates of the space station this week was that redesign not only would delay the project but might compromise it severely by allowing opponents back into the game. Indeed, the stakes are high for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. of Huntington Beach and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International in Canoga Park, two of the three prime contractors for the project. Supporters fear that under a worst-case scenario, Congress might eventually decide to cut off funding altogether.

In fact, there is much to recommend a space station redesign, beyond the obvious pursuit of a cost-effective space program. And this is not just an idea flown in on the wings of a new Administration. A panel of White House experts in 1990 looked at NASA and suggested that it needed to try to do fewer things and to do the things it tried to do much better.

High on that list was a redesigned, less complicated and less costly space station. The panel suggested that a leaner, meaner station should have limited missions, such as studying the Earth and the effect of space on life, as well as experimenting with producing crystals and other materials.

A scientifically sound and politically salable space station, with a clearly defined mission, is absolutely needed in the current climate in Washington. After all, NASA’s estimated price tag, just through the end of the decade, is $30 billion. The heavens are not going anywhere while the nation gets its fiscal act together and comes to grips with a fundamental question: Just what is it we as a nation wish to accomplish in space?