The Nation - News from March 23, 1988

Almost a billion dollars must be allocated to the space station next year or America will have to abandon plans to build the orbiting platform, NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher said. A substantial cut in the space station budget, added to delays caused by cuts in earlier years, will make it useless for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to continue efforts to build the station, he said. But senators at the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on science, technology and space warned that it would be difficult to get NASA its entire requested budget because of deficit-cutting efforts. Several pressed him on how much of a cut could be tolerated, but Fletcher said the requested budget was the “rock bottom.” NASA’s 1989 budget calls for $967.4 million for the station.