Washington DC – May 7, 1998 – Once again the U.S. Congress has faced down NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin over cost overruns and schedule delays involving the International Space Station project.
This latest exercise,
like all those before, resulted in nothing and with the space project
slipping further and further into the 21st century. And while Goldin flatly
refused to either accept or reject the recent Chabrow report on the
station’s cost woes, he did admit that “a new relationship” may be in order
for the Russians’ participation in the oft-delayed station.
NASA also confirmed Wednesday that the Russian government has failed to
pay its space workers for the months of April and May, and that the central
government was more than $340 million behind in station payments needed to
complete the critical Service Module. Once planned for launch to orbit in
December, 1998, the module is now more than three months behind schedule.
With the prospects that a U.S. Navy rocket stage will be substituted for
either the Service Module, or Russian resupply rockets (NASA has now
“discovered” a shortage of the Progress tankers that will be needed to
reboost the station once it’s aloft), Goldin told the Hill Wednesday that
he was again delaying the final decision over the Module from mid-May until
July.
The politicos huffed and puffed, but in the end were faced with the
realistic outcome of doing nothing until NASA analyzed the Chabrow findings
and crafted yet another bailout plan. The report, from an independent
review team, said last month that the station would need more than $7
billion in new money, and take as much as two more years to complete,
pushing its last assembly to the year 2007.
But Goldin won’t say if he
agrees with the new findings – and if so, what he would do to salvage the
project. One politician had a new idea, however. F. James Sensenbrenner,
R-WI, chair of the House Science Committee, suggested that President Bill
Clinton “become personally involved” in getting the Russians to honor their
agreement on the modules. But such a move, many policy watchers agree, was
unlikely. The White House was too busy selling U.S. space technology
secrets to the Chinese military – if you can believe the stories fast
circulating around Washington these days. Stay tuned.
