Space Science Is Expected To Gain Emphasis Under New NASA Head

The end of the era of behemoth projects at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration may be at hand as Congress on March 31 confirmed a non-astronaut as the new administrator of an agency facing congressional funding cutbacks. Until his appointment, Daniel Goldin was vice president of TRW Inc.'s Space & Technology Group in Redondo Beach, Calif. TRW, a longtime NASA contractor, has been involved not in space shuttle-sized projects but in the smaller science of satellites, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and the grinding of X-ray optics mirrors for astrophysical observations. Unlike his predecessor, Richard Truly, a former shuttle pilot, Goldin has not flown in space. He began his career as a researcher 30 years ago at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, where he worked on propulsion systems for interplanetary travel. According to media reports and sources in the Bush administration and the scientific community, Truly was removed to pave the way for changes at NASA that will make it less focused on large, manned adventures in space and toward doing space projects that are faster to complete and cheaper. In an April 1 televised address, Goldin prepared NASA employees for leaner times: "Up on Capitol Hill, the House Authorization Subcommittee is marking up the FY 1993 NASA authorization bill this afternoon--the first of several pieces of legislation that will determine just where the space program is headed in the decade of the '90s and beyond. As Admiral Truly noted in his [departing] address to you yesterday, `These are tough times,' and I am going to need your support. "My challenge is to convince you that we can do more, do it a little better, and do it for less." Goldin added that NASA must give the taxpayers "an even better return on their investment" than in the past. Basic and applied research will figure prominently in the agency's future, Goldin told the employees: "Our cutting-edge technology programs will increase our future competitiveness; our science programs will help us better understand the universe we live in and the origin of life; our life sciences and microgravity research programs could lead to even greater contributions to medical technology; our aeronautics program will help the nation push the edge of technology and maintain market share." Goldin also said the shuttle will remain the dominant orbital lift vehicle at NASA and that he is committed to deploying the space station Freedom as an orbiting laboratory, assuming that Congress authorizes the $30 billion needed to make it operational. Physicist Robert Park, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society, says he sees the Goldin appointment as a clear sign that NASA will be shifting its emphasis away from costly and showy manned adventures in space and toward relevent research. Grandiose programs, as epitomized by the Apollo missions, have been a geopolitical triumph yielding little in the way of useful knowledge, and have no place in the post-Cold War world, Park says. A deemphasis on the shuttle, which he believes the Goldin appointment represents, "simply makes more money available for space science." A Bush administration official, who requests anonymity, confirms that Goldin will be taking NASA into an era in which projects are done "faster and cheaper," as opposed to mammoth, moon-shot-type endeavors. The source also says that one of Goldin's challenges will be to change the bigger-is-better attitude of many of the workers at NASA. While Goldin was unavailable to comment on his appointment and the future of space science at the agency, NASA spokesman Jim McCulla says basic research should continue to be important. "NASA has devoted approximately one-fifth of its budget to space science, and there is no sign that this emphasis will be reduced," McCulla says. However, he says, "it is doubtful that the deemphasis of any current NASA program would result in a boost in funding for space science. Last year there was a serious attempt in the House of Representatives to kill space station Freedom. Under that plan, the station's funds would have been used for veterans and housing."

Space Science Is Expected To Gain Emphasis Under New NASA Head

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