NASA to seek delay in space station launch
By CNN Correspondent John Holliman
February 27, 1998
Web posted at: 4:13 PM EST (1613 GMT)
WASHINGTON
(CNN)-- NASA is considering a delay in the international space station
program, so it can substitute another mission payload on the schedule
for space shuttle flights.
After criticizing the Russians for delays in manufacturing
parts of the station, NASA is expected to announce soon that
it wants to haul the advanced X-ray observatory into space,
probably in August, before it takes up the first U.S.-made
piece of the space station.
The delay could cause more problems for NASA with Congress,
which is already critical of cost overruns for the program.
The current schedule calls for the first element of the space
station, a Russian-built segment called the functional cargo
block, to be launched in late June. NASA would then launch on
July 9 a connecting tunnel that would double the size of the
budding space station.
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The functional Cargo Block, the first module of the ISS.
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If the
Russians approve, NASA would ask them to delay their launch of the functional
cargo block until August, allowing the liftoff of the U.S. connecting
tunnel in September.
Originally, the observatory was to be launched after the
tunnel, but the observatory won't be ready for an August
launch, unless NASA can put the tunnel on hold.
The delay, combined with massive cost overruns, has convinced
some in Congress to demand a cap on U.S. spending on the
space station.
The station is now more than $4 billion over budget,
according to Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who has
commissioned a General Accounting Office report on NASA's
cost overruns on the station. He says he will introduce
legislation to cap U.S. spending on the project.