Politics will reshape the space station. (Space)(R&D News of Science and Technology) (column)

R & D, December, 1990

SPACE

Politics will reshape the space station

NASA will not be getting Christmas cheer this year. In fact, soon after the holidays, look for NASA to unveil a scaled-down version of its space station Freedom, a result of the current budget crunch.

In mid-October a House-Senate conference approved a restructuring of the space program that will slow down spending for the space station and eliminate much of the new money for the moon/Mars initiative. Under the plan, FY91 appropriations for the space station, NASA's most visible and expensive project, will top out at $1.9 billion, 22% less than the planned $2.45 billion.

According to John Pike, director of space policy projects at the Federation of American Scientists, Washington, DC,...

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