SPACE.com -- KSC Considers Privatizing Base

Kennedy Space Center security officer Ronald Hunt directs traffic away from the space center late Tuesday morning in reaction to the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. Officials at the KSC Visitor Complex, which has been closed since the attacks, hoped to reopen facilities today. Image copyright 2001, Craig Bailey, FLORIDA TODAY.

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	KSC Considers Privatizing Base By Steven Siceloff FLORIDA TODAY posted: 09:05 am ET 18 September 2001

CAPE CANAVERAL - Kennedy Space Center's director has called for a series of studies that could fundamentally change how the base operates and who controls it

CAPE CANAVERAL - Kennedy Space Center's director has called for a series of studies that could fundamentally change how the base operates and who controls it.

The agency wants to share the expense of space research with universities and aerospace contractors in order to cope with a flat budget and persistent cost overruns. NASA spends about $14.5 billion a year. The shuttle fleet faces a $1 billion shortage over several years starting in 2003, estimates show.

President George W. Bush ordered the agency earlier this year to look at ways to hand over operations to private companies. These new studies could redefine the way business is done at Kennedy Space Center, and help the center meet projected budget shortfalls in the coming years.

Center Director Roy Bridges outlined a series of studies to find cheaper ways to run NASA's primary launch site. NASA and the U.S. Air Force potentially could lease the site for shuttle and rocket launches.

Other studies include privatizing the shuttle fleet and increasing partnerships with universities to handle research work from shuttle and space station missions. There is no word yet on when the studies may be finished or if the proposals will be implemented.

More than 12,000 people work at KSC.

Aerospace companies that would be most affected said Monday it was too early to tell how they would respond to a larger role in America's space effort.

"Current federal budget projections, coupled with significant NASA program overruns (e.g., International Space Station), have forced our agency to reassess the way we do business," Bridges said in the letter.

The agency's field centers across the country are undergoing similar examinations, and can expect to make similar recommendations, agency spokeswoman Kirsten Larsen said Monday.

"All of us will be looking to find efficiencies," she said.

United Space Alliance, a joint venture of The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin, was the first to show what privatization might look like when it took over preparation work for the shuttle fleet.

Company spokesman Jeff Carr said the deal saved the agency $1.2 billion since mid-1995.

NASA hasn't asked USA for suggestions, Carr added. "It sounds to me like they are in the very early steps of self-analysis," he said.

Other consolidation efforts have had mixed results. Space Gateway Support, which handles maintenance and security for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, laid off 16 security workers this summer anticipating $8 million less from NASA and the Air Force in part because savings were not as high as expected.

Giving a private company or companies control of the 140,000-acre space center and 15,000-acre Cape Canaveral Air Force Station could simplify much of the work and make it cheaper, Spaceport Florida Authority Director Ed Gormel said Monday.

"Establishing a quasi-governmental facility can provide a means to focus infrastructure improvements and management," Gormel said.

Turning Kennedy Space Center over to private business can be more effective as long as it has enough funding, said Bruce Mahone, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Aerospace Industries Association.

"It doesn't seem likely you could collect enough in user fees to cover the costs of operating," Mahone said. "If you made user fees high enough to cover the costs, you'd probably drive all the commercial business overseas and be back to the government funding the whole thing again."

The proposals were discussed during a strategy session last week with Kennedy Space Center's top management. The group returned from a retreat in Vero Beach on Tuesday after terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

"Needless to say, it was difficult to focus; but as requested by our President and Administrator, we did our best to concentrate on the work at hand," Bridges said, offering a resolute note. "Still, each of us has important work to do, and I ask that you perform your duties with the same safety, focus and attention to detail that have become KSC's hallmark."