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Budget Constraints To Affect Space Station Science, NASA Official says
By Stew Magnuson
Spacenews.com Staff Writer
posted: 05:25 pm ET
02 March 2001
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nasa_budget_new_010302 WASHINGTON The cutbacks in U.S. space station hardware ordered by the White House this week will force NASA to change the way research programs are conducted on the orbiting laboratory, according to a NASA official. [inset] An outline of the 2002 NASA budget request released by the White House this week called for NASA to scale back or stop work altogether on its habitation module, crew return vehicle (CRV) and propulsion module. Some of that hardware, particularly the crew rescue vehicle, was designed to help the station accommodate as many as seven crew members for long term stays. The cutback in hardware will likely keep the maximum size of resident crews at three, the number of crew members currently living in the orbiting laboratory. With a smaller crew than originally planned, NASA will have to change the way it approaches experiments, NASA space station chief Michael Hawes said in a conference call with reporters March 2. "We have a lot of assessments going on, [including] the research areas that are less crew time intensive," Hawes said. Hawes maintained that a three-person crew would have enough time to carry out experiments and perform such duties as routine maintenance. "I think were going to work out a research program that makes a lot of sense and we will still be [able to do] more than we have been able to do in the past," Hawes said. "Well be able to take advantage of having the unique characteristics of having a laboratory in space" 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Hawes said. "Its going to be a different kind of science program perhaps but we will still deliver a science program that is of high value to the taxpayer," Hawes added.
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