Space Station Vote by House a Boon to Aerospace Firms

Instead of facing a bleak business future trapped on Earth, the aerospace industry’s fortunes soared Thursday when the House voted to fund continued development of the space station Freedom.

“This is a resounding victory for the manned space program,” said Sam Iacobellis, executive vice president at Rockwell International. “What was at stake in killing the space station was the crippling of the manned space program.”

A decision to abort the program would have meant the loss of 15,000 jobs in Southern California’s aerospace industry, which has two of the three major work packages on the program and enjoys a commanding position in the production of manned space systems.

At its worst, the loss of the station would have started the unraveling of the manned space program. Its cancellation would have undercut the future of the space shuttle program and would have quickly atrophied U.S. industry’s capability to support such exotic programs.

“This issue goes far behind just the space station; it affects the whole manned space program,” said Don Fuqua, president of the Aerospace Industries Assn. and a former congressional leader on space issues. “There isn’t much need for a manned program without the station.”

If Congress were ever going to stop the space station, it would have occurred in the vote Thursday. With that juncture past, the government seems irrevocably committed to the massive expenditures that will be required to launch and operate the space station. By all accounts, it will be the most expensive project on the nation’s agenda, with its price tag over the next 30 years of $118 billion eclipsing even the B-2 bomber program.

David C. Wensley, deputy general manager of the space station program for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. in Huntington Beach, hailed the House vote to restore $1.9 billion in funding for the space station.

“This has been an important debate that showed the importance of the space program to our global leadership,” he said. “It’s time for a glass of Champagne.”

With more than $4 billion in contracts since 1987, Space Systems employs 2,100 people in Orange County and Houston on the space station.

This month, the company is renegotiating its contract work based on a redesigned station, Wensley said. If funding is maintained at the level approved by the House, the company expects to maintain its work force at the current level. And Wensley said he expects the Senate to approve a higher appropriation for the space station than the House.

“This is the most intense debate on this subject in recent years, lasting even longer than the civil rights bill debate,” he said. “It is clear our emotions on the manned space program and the future of NASA are running high.”

Rockwell International has 1,150 employees assigned to the program at its Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park, which is building the orbiting station’s electric power system, said Jerry Friefeld, marketing manager for the program.

If the space station program had been canceled, Friefeld warned, the damage would have gone beyond lost jobs. “We’re talking about American technological competitiveness,” he said.

Far more than the 15,000 jobs in Los Angeles County directly related to the space station were at stake, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp., a new nonprofit organization. Many businesses--from small electronics components suppliers to accounting firms--are dependent on aerospace programs, he noted.

SPACE STATION GO-AHEAD

The House restores funding. A1

Space Station Freedom * Cost: $30 billion * Crew: 4 * Length of pressurized module: 27 ft. * Overall length of truss: 353 ft. * Shuttle flights needed to build: 23-26 * Construction to start: 1996 * Permanently manned by: 2000 Source: NASA