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From: Hans.Moravec%CMU-RI-ROVER@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Space Station
Message-ID: <15723@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Jan-84 09:22:11 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15723
Posted: Thu Jan 19 09:22:11 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jan-84 02:45:20 EST
Lines: 60

n507  2252  18 Jan 84
BC-SPACE-01-19
    By Albert Sehlstedt Jr.
     (c) 1984 The Baltimore Sun (Independent Press Service)
    WASHINGTON - President Reagan will propose next week that the nation
build a permanent manned space station, and there will be some money
for the project in his 1985 budget, a senior administration official
said Wednesday.
    ''NASA made a good presentation'' to the White House in behalf of
the space station, the official said, referring to the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration. ''It seemed the next logical
step.''
     Reagan will make his proposal during his State of the Union Address
to Congress next Wednesday, the official said.
    NASA has long sought such a large station in Earth orbit that would
contain long-term living quarters for astronauts, serve as a
laboratory for scientific studies and possibly be used as a
jumping-off point for expeditions to the moon and planets.
    The cost of a space station in its initial form has been estimated
at $7.5 billion to $9 billion. A more elaborate station might cost
close to $20 billion.
    The nation's Apollo lunar landing program cost a total of $23.5
billion in the 1960s and 1970s.
    Should Congress agree to appropriate money for the project it would
be allocated over a period of years, not in one lump sum. The station
itself could be ready for use some time in the 1990s.
    There is substantial support for the station in some congressional
quarters and, of course, within the aerospace industry that would
design and build such a vehicle.
    ''We sent a letter to the president several weeks ago, asking that
he approve development of the space station and include it in his
budget,'' said Anna Perez, an aide to Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.),
chairman of the Science, Technology and Space subcommittee.
     Perez said the White House Office of Science and Technology had
requested a meeting with Gorton next week to discuss the project.
    On the House side of the Capitol, Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.), chairman
of the Science and Technology Committee is on the record in support
of a space station.
    ''There is pretty much approval that this is the next logical step
in space,'' said Radford Byerly, science consultant to the Fuqua
committee. However, there has been no formal approval of a specific
project, he added.
    A lack of specifics, with regard to just how a space station would
be used, is one of the reasons the president's science adviser, Dr.
George A. Keyworth, has been less than enthusiastic about NASA's
proposal for a space station.
    However, he is understood to have become somewhat more favorably
inclined to the idea in recent months.
     Keyworth still believes that ''you must know what you are doing it
for,'' an associate said, referring to the specific objectives NASA
would have in mind for the project.
    The Soviet Union plans to orbit a manned space station that would be
permanently staffed and gradually developed into a multi-purpose
research and manufacturing center, according to Pravda, the Communist
Party daily.
    The newspapers reported the Kremlin's plans Nov. 28.
    END
    
nyt-01-19-84 0144est
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