Space Station’s Cost: At Least $24.5 Billion

WASHINGTON —  Getting the first phase of NASA’s planned space station in orbit by the mid-1990s will cost at least $24.5 billion in 1988 dollars and uncertainties could “substantially” increase the cost, an independent study panel said today.

A National Research Council committee headed by former deputy NASA Administrator Robert C. Seamans based its cost figures on the space agency’s own estimates and said the complexities of the program are unprecedented.

“Technical problems with systems integration are unlikely to be discovered until relatively late in the development cycle when they are costly to rectify,” Seamans said in a letter to White House officials and NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher.

He said his panel plans to examine the uncertainties in the second phase of its study.

The panel said the research and development costs of the first phase of the two-step program will total $14 billion in 1984 dollars, or $16.4 billion in 1988 dollars. The committee added the estimated costs of a robot service system and a space lifeboat for the crew to NASA’s basic cost.

But when the costs to get the assembly actually in orbit and put it together are included, the panel said, the total cost will be $21 billion in 1984 dollars, or $24.5 billion in 1988 dollars.

President Reagan gave NASA the go-ahead in April to proceed with the first phase of the station. Under the current schedule, NASA plans to have the station manned on a permanent basis with rotating crews in early 1996.

NASA does not yet have permission to proceed with the second phase of the station.

Seamans emphasized that the space station is “an extraordinarily large and complex system.” He said it cannot be assembled on the ground and must be transported into space on 18 shuttle flights.