
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 18, 1993                   TAG: 9308180046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NASA PICKS PLAYERS FOR, NEW SMALLER SPACE STATION PROJECT

NASA moved to streamline management of the oft-criticized space station Tuesday, selecting the Houston space center and Boeing Co. as overseers of the $22 billion program.

The consolidation decision, in line with orders to scale back space-station plans, was good news for Houston, which already is home to NASA's manned spaceflight program, and for Seattle-based Boeing, which is laying off thousands of workers because of defense and airline cutbacks.

The losers include the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and three Boeing competitors with huge space station contracts: McDonnell Douglas Corp., Rockwell International's Rocketdyne Division and Grumman Aerospace Corp.

The program office in Reston, Va., near Washington, will be closed and its 215 space station jobs will be shifted elsewhere.

"The groundwork for building the new space station team is being laid," said NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. "It's good for the American taxpayer, for NASA and for the contractors. It puts NASA in the proper role of establishing what we need and then getting out of the way and letting industry do the job."

Goldin announced that Houston's Johnson Space Center had won the competition for a new space station program office.

Johnson was competing against centers in Huntsville, Ala.; Greenbelt, Md.; and Cleveland for the designation as "host center."

While Houston will gain 300 jobs, workers at the other space centers won't be greatly affected, NASA officials said.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, hailed the decision as "a great testament to the quality of work being done at the Johnson Space Center."

Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala., said it was "regrettable" that the Huntsville center wasn't chosen. "However, I have been told that Marshall's present role . . . will virtually remain the same," he said.

In February, President Clinton ordered NASA to produce a space station at far less cost and complexity than the $31.3 billion one on the drawing board.

NASA now plans to have the station up and ready for occupancy in the year 2000 at a cost of $12.7 billion in addition to the $9 billion already spent.

by CNB