Engineers Planning 3 Options for Scaled-Down Space Station

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineering team ordered to design a bargain-basement space station by June 1 plans to present three proposed models to the Clinton Administration and perhaps preserve the possibility of an orbiting facility permanently occupied by astronauts.

But officials describing the effort to scale down the $31-billion Space Station Freedom conceded Thursday that their ideas are still too vague to sketch on paper. And they said they remain uncertain about how much money they can spend. More than that, they were vague about how a low-budget station would be used even if they had one.

But space agency Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told reporters that the agency will make maximum use of the $8.5-billion worth of work that has gone into designing and planning since the mid-1980s, and he promised an economical version that will be “meaningful to America.”

Although the expected cost of a redesigned station will not become clear until the Clinton Administration sends Congress its first budget next month, Goldin said the objective is to reduce the operating cost by half.

Of the $31-billion price tag for Freedom, about $17 billion was expected to be spent for development, with $14 billion remaining for support and operation over a 10-year period.

The station’s lifetime had been projected at 30 years, with operational costs over that period estimated at $60 billion to $118 billion. Under the revised plan, however, the redesigned station would be expected to operate for only about 10 years.

Despite the steps toward economizing, the space station is expected to encounter the stiffest opposition it has yet seen in Congress, where interest in cutting spending and reducing the deficit is intense.

In recent years, plans for the station had remained intact largely because the Senate refused to go along with efforts in the House to halt the funding.

This year, however, Senate opponents led by Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark), Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), and Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) are attempting to eliminate all station funding from the budget.