From: aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer)
Subject: One Small Step for a Space Activist... (vol 3 no 12)
Followup-To: talk.politics.space
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 21:58:11 GMT



           One Small Step for a Space Activist...
                Vol. 3 No. 12 - December 1992
                             By
                  Allen Sherzer & Tim Kyger

The Freedom Space Station project is at it again. Two stories
have recently surfaced which once more call the future of this
project into question.

First, is a Space News story about the progress (or lack thereof)
in Work Package 02 (the truss structure) of SS Freedom. In Dec.
1987 NASA awarded a $1.8 billion contract to McDonnell Douglas.
Nine months later when the final contract was signed, the price
had gone up to $2.6 billion. Four years later, as a result of cost
overruns, Work Package 02 now weighs in at $4.9 billion -- A 250%
increase during a time when funding and design for Freedom was
relatively stable. To pay for these overruns NASA has had to dip
big time into its reserves, which will cause even more damage later
in the program.

Worse yet, Work Package 02 is as much as 18 months behind schedule.
McDonnell Douglas recently informed NASA that it can provide only
700 of the 2,700 drawings promised before the next design review.
This action (or lack) will ripple down the PERT charts and could add
up to billions more in cost overruns as other contractors are forced
to mark time waiting for Work package 02's outputs.

Congresses' fault? Not this time. Most of the overruns and delays
have happened at a time when Freedom has seen very stable funding and
little design interference.

The second problem looming is more ominous and insidious. For a long
time the Johnson Spaceflight Center (JSC) has been trying to shut
down the Reston Virginia Space Station Program Office and move it to
Houston. The recent creation of a contractor-led integration team at
Johnson called the Joint Vehicle Integration Team (we never knew
Freedom was a vehicle - did you?) may accomplish keeping the Reston
office in existence, but doing nothing, and moving all other space
station efforts to Johnson.

JVIT, like many things, sounds like a great idea -- at first. It
would make the contractors responsible for the overall space station
project which is something many space activists have always felt was
needed. It would also tie fees to contractor performance, which is
also something desperately needed inside NASA. On the other hand,
is it appropriate for THIS project? The last time the integration 
task was moved (for the creation of the Reston office) it resulted
in massive program slips. How can moving the integration task to
Johnson be anything but disruptive? Can the program afford
disruption now?

Worse, the people responsible for integration haven't done
all that good a job to date. JVIT will make it far easier
for both NASA and contractors to hide overruns and provide
the appearance of progress where none exists.

These new massive cost overruns and NASA's inability to control
them, along with the JVIT, which turns integration over to the
people responsible for the whole mess, should make one wonder
what the goal of this project is. Is the goal a permanent
outpost for Americans in space or is it to spend $2 billion
every year on whoever has the political clout to bring to
the pork home? It appears more and more to us that the goal is the
latter. As Dick Jones, VP, Omni Consumer Products put it:
"Upgrades, renovation programs, spare parts for 25 years;
who cares if it works or not!"

                     Legislative Roundup

                          SSTO/SSRT
Freshmen Orientation, a project to brief ALL new
Congresspersons on SSTO, is progressing well. To date about 100
training packets have been mailed to local activists and
most should have sent out letters requesting meetings by
now. Kudos to Larry Ahern, NSS Chapters Coordinator, who is
meeting with a Chicago area Frosh staffer in early
December. If you want to help, contact Tim Kyger at (202)
225-8459.

                      Commercial Space
The start of the 103RD Congress is near. Time again to
continue the process of chipping away at government
impediments to commercial space activity. Expect to see some of the
tax provisions which didn't make it into last year's NASA
bill to be re-introduced. If Clinton is serious about
targeted tax cuts to promote investment then odds of
passage, even if only as an amendment may be pretty good.
Activists have been very successful with this in the past
few years (pats on the back all around and several directed
at San Diego); let's all keep up the good work.

Also upcoming is the Lunar Resources Data Purchase Act. This
is a great idea for legislation we will discuss in detail next
month.

Thing to do:
1. Do you have any ideas on what would be good to include in
future commercial space legislation? If so, drop a note to
Barry Berringer, Care Of Rep. Robert Walker.

-- 
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  aws@iti.org     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------133 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+