February 13, 1993
President Is Expected to Request Full Financing for Space Station
President Clinton has decided to ask for full financing for the proposed international space station but is concerned about possible cost overruns in the program, White House officials and Congressional aides said today.
After two days of rumors that the President would call for drastic cuts for the orbiting observatory, Administration officials said Mr. Clinton would propose spending $2.25 billion on the project in the next fiscal year, as requested by the space agency.
In addition, Congressional aides said, President Clinton has indicated he will ask for about $16 billion next year for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, about the amount requested by the agency.
Earlier, some Congressional aides said the White House was likely to propose spending only $1.35 billion on Space Station Freedom in the next fiscal year, about 40 percent less than NASA had requested.
Senator Howell Heflin, Democrat of Alabama, said he had spoken with Vice President Al Gore and had been assured that 1994 spending levels on the space station would near or exceed the current level of $2.1 billion.
This afternoon, the official directing space station work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston resigned. The official, John Aaron, quit hours after his ouster was demanded by Senator Robert Krueger, a Texas Democrat, who blamed Mr. Aaron for a $500 million cost overrun on the space station project.
More than $8 billion has been spent on the space station since 1984. Ten European countries, Canada and Japan are participating in the project, which is estimated to cost $30 billion to $40 billion to build, and $100 billion to maintain over its 30-year lifetime.
A panel of experts gave the space shuttle's main engines an unenthusiastic passing grade today, saying they need constant maintenance.
The panel said it considers the engine safe to fly provided technical checks are made "vigorously and rigorously." The panel concluded that the engines were "not as rugged as is desired for such a machine."
The study, commissioned by Congress, says test data indicate that the chance of an engine shutdown in which the crew and ship are both safe is about 1 in 45 flights. The probability of an engine failure leading to disaster is about 1 in 120 flights.
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