R&D would rise from $3.1 billion this year to $3.6 billion under the proposal for fiscal year 1988. The fastest growing program within that category is the Space Station, projected to grow from $420 million this year to $767 million in the new budget.
That increase, however, may draw fire from a Congress worried about trimming the federal deficit. "It's right where it has to be" to support ongoing programs, said a staff member of the House Science and Technology Committee, who requested anonymity, about the proposal: But he predicted that "it's going to come under very close scrutiny, and it may be in trouble" when the time comes to decide how much to spend.
NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher insisted at a news briefing that assembly of the Space Station would begin in 1992 and that by 1994 it would become a permanently manned facility (with perhaps half a ...
