Clinton Likely to Back Building of Space Lab

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton has decided to push for construction of a sophisticated, orbiting space laboratory that would make use of much of the technology already developed for the controversial space station Freedom, congressional aides said Tuesday.

Clinton all but announced his intentions at a Tuesday press conference, taking pains to highlight the project’s virtues as he spoke to reporters. The President promised a formal statement on the project within a few days.

“I do think it’s important for us to recognize that the space station offers us the potential of working with other nations and continuing our lead in a very important area and having a significant technological impact,” the President said.

“In the aftermath of all the cutbacks in defense and what they mean for science and technology, (the space station program) is something that we should, in my judgment, consider very carefully.”

During a Monday meeting with the top congressional backers of the project, Vice President Al Gore and White House Science Adviser John Gibbons strongly suggested that the President had decided to proceed with the program, sources told The Times.

“I think the crisis has passed about what the design will look like,” said a top aide to one of those who was present. “I think the real debate now will be over where the money will come from, because all the designs are over budget.”

Among those who attended the meeting were Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton), chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, which oversees the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA; and Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio), Mikulski’s House counterpart.

The future of the space station program is being watched closely in Southern California, where the aerospace industry already has been battered by cuts in defense spending. The state is home to two of the space station’s three prime contractors--the McDonnell Douglas space systems unit in Huntington Beach and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International in Canoga Park--that hold contracts valued at more than $6 billion. More than 60 California companies have more than 4,000 employees working on the project.

At the press conference, Clinton also embraced a call for dramatic changes in the way NASA manages its major projects, endorsing the findings of a 16-member panel of aerospace industry experts that reviewed the space lab program.

The experts called for streamlining space station management and cutting 30% of NASA and private contractor workers on the project.

Congressional sources predicted that Clinton will recommend some combination of two of the three options for continuing the space station program that were presented to the White House last week by the panel of experts.

Both alternatives, known as Option A and Option B, are based largely on the space station design and engineering program under way at NASA since President Ronald Reagan first announced the program in 1984.

Clinton is likely to reject a third, less expensive plan, Option C, that represents a dramatic departure from the earlier space station work, congressional sources said.

But congressional critics have vowed to fight the space station, citing tough economic times and questions about the project’s scientific value in light of cost-cutting attempts.

A House vote is scheduled within the next week on a NASA authorization bill that would provide $1.9 billion a year for the space station over six years.