European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 02, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Up piggyback test shuttle will consume More than a third of space Agency budget. Drawing depicts orbiting shuttle with space Telescope in payload Bay. . Space program gels the shuttle Bug Page 14 shuttle vehicle right could carry materials to assemble station in space. The stars and stripes by Howard Benedict associated press buoyed by the successful first free flight of the space shuttle Enterprise the nation s space program once again appears healthy and vigor Ous. The Enterprise s stubby wings carry the Promise of cheaper far easier Access to space and eventually perhaps its colonization. Unlike the adventures and largely scientific quests of most of the 30 . Manned space flights to Date those in this new Era of the space plane will emphasize human needs and economic benefits. The Prospect of the shuttle has restored some of the old ounce to the National aeronautics and space administration which has not sent anyone into space in the last two  of the glory Days of Mercury gemini Apollo and skylab were revived aug. 12 when the enter prise flew for five minutes after being ejected from tieback of a Boeing 747 Over Edwards air Force base  two astronauts aboard Fred Haise or. And c. Gordon Fullerton skilfully guided their 75-ton Craft froma height of five Miles in a Long Glide to a perfect Landing on the hard surface of a dry desert Lake duplicating a Nevers to be performed when later shuttles return to an Earth Landing strip from orbit. This ship s going to revolutionize the Way we do business in space said Moon Walker John Young Veteran of four space missions after the Brief test. Much remains to be done before that prophecy comes True and the nation sends a Fleet of these Buck Rogers style vehicles shuttling Between Earth and orbit. More drop tests from the Boeing jumbo Jet Are scheduled to Check various flying characteristics of the shuttle. But barring major difficulty John f. Yardley Nasa associate administrator for space flight said the first shuttle should be on a Cape canaveral fla., launching pad i March 1979. That probably will be Only a two Day flight with two astronauts aboard. It would be the first of six Orbital test flights planned for the Craft that year. To perfect Landing techniques the first four Are to land on the desert expanses near Edwards. After that landings will be on a15,000-foot runway that has been built near the launch site at Cape canaveral. After a flight a shuttle will be refurbished for another launching an operation expected to take two weeks Orless. Nasa says each of the projected five shuttles should be Able to make 100 or More round trips into orbit. Yard Ley said he sees no reason Why each can t Fly As Many As 500 times. The shuttles Are to begin operating for real in 1980 doing things manned space vehicles have never tried before. They will be used to position satellites in orbit for communications navigation weather forecasting military reconnaissance and scientific research. The crewmen up to seven on a Mission will be Able to repair an ailing satellite or bring it Back for maintenance cutting Cost Sand considerably extending the lives of Many payloads. With the capacity of hauling up to 65,000 pounds theespa Caplanes once in orbit also will launch probes bound for other planets. And they will carry up a Small station called space lab being developed by a consortium of 11 Western european countries. Space lab also will be Capa ble of repeated round trips into orbit perhaps As Many As 50. Eventually the shuttle Fleet May ferry people and parts for the construction of solar space stations space factories Moon bases and habitats for colonies far beyond Earth. A recent Nasa sponsored study concluded that space settlement for 10,000 people could be a reality 20 years after a decision to build it. Yardley said a go ahead for such a Colony would debased not on technology but on social and political reasoning. He said the project is already feasible. Before we make that commitment we would have Mohave a better understanding of Why we want to colonize space said Nasa administrator Robert a. Frosch. Yardley said that during an Early shuttle flight Nas Hopes to orbit a 25-kilowatt, solar powered Generator to which the space planes could Dock drawing electricity to extend their Orbital lifetime to 60 to 90 Days. For later there is a plan to orbit a 200-kilowatt unit to permit attachment of space labs or shuttles for missions that could last six months or More. Yardley said the longer stays would enable construction Crews to build space platforms which could be the foundations for Large space stations. Nasa is forecasting 560 separate shuttle Mission Between 1980 and 1991, averaging about 60 annually or More than one a week. By then the types of rockets now used to launch satellites no longer willbe built. The space Agency which has already booked All it flights for the shuttle s first two years once regular trips begin expects to generate More business As potential customers gain  Union Telesa Canada Intelsat and satellite business systems Are expected to sign contracts for the launching of commercial communications satellites. Geo sat committee inc., a group of nearly 100 . Corp rations. Including Exxon and Kerr Mcgee Oil has been formed to work closely with Nasa on Industry needs such As geological  and High technology firms Hope to take advantage of weightless orbiting lab conditions to simplify the manufacture of Many items from exotic enzymes to perfect Ball bearings and single Crystal Semi conduct ors. Large space factories could evolve from this Early re search and perhaps open up the next Industrial revolution according to some business analysts. The defense department has indicated it will use 109 of the projected 560 flights to carry up military payloads designed for surveillance missile attack Alert navigation and communications plus conduct ing manned reconnaissance. It plans to construct a separate shuttle launch base a Vandenberg air Force base calif., to be used by both Nasa and the Pentagon for North South Polar orbits Cov ering the Globe. Most of the launching however will be conducted at Cape  has set an initial rate schedule based on what it expects each shuttle flight to Cost $19 million to $20 Mil lion for commercial and foreign users $16 million to $18million for Federal government users and $12.2 million for the defense department. By comparison the Titan 3,the largest . Space rocket now in use costs customers $46 million a launch and can t carry half the payload of the shuttle. The space Agency also is offering standby space Avail Able fares and getaway specials. Several University laboratories and other institution shave put Down $500 Down payments on the latter which entitles them for a total of $3,000 to place scientific or re search packages of up to 200 pounds and five cubic feet aboard a shuttle with an unfilled cargo Bay. Nasa has not added any astronauts to its roster since 1969. Of the 73 selected through the years Only 29 remain on flight status. With the shuttle Era approaching the Agency advertised last year for new applicants. More than 8,000 persons put in bids. Experts at the Johnson space Center in Houston tex., have whittled this list to 200 and Are now interviewing them aiming by the end of the year to select about 30 men and women to serve As shuttle pilots and Mission specialists. Just How far and How fast the shuttle program goes will depend on where the space program fits into president Carter s plan to bal Ance the Federal budget by fiscal 1981. Frank press the president s science adviser said he supports Nasa s current $4 billion yearly budget and does not expect it to drop below that level. With the shuttle press said we Are developing a remarkable capability in space. We need to do this. Nasa has that Challenge to come up with a respectable list of projects that can Benefit humanity As a whole defense Earth resources and science. Press said the Carter administration has not decided whether Large structures should be built in space in the near future. We have a very technically minded president and Ahard Case will have to be made for it he said. It is extremely important to president Carter to balance the budget by 1981, and any threats to that will be hard to approve. It will not be easy to sell unless a very persuasive argument can be made f or  Carter recently told a group of reporters it is unlikely the . Will initiate any major new space Effort until the shuttle has been used to its full Poten tial. He ruled out manned planetary flights in the near future and indicated he would not support development anytime soon of a space station to orbit the Earth unattached from a shuttle. Carter who has taken substantially More interest in the space program than did the Nixon and Ford administrations has urged expanded use of spacecraft technology in foreign policy particularly communications satellites and landsat the Earth resources Survey Satel  earlier this year before the permanent coun cil of the organization of american states Carter said our own science and technology can be useful to Many of your countries. We Are ready to train your technicians to use More information gathered by our own satellites so that you can make better judgments on management of your resources and your  the time nears for Carter to submit his first com plete Federal budget the administration has asked Nasa to submit a series of option budgets in keeping with Carter s Zero based budgeting concept under which every item is justified from scratch rather than Only those items that represent new spending. The shuttle will consume More than one third of the space Agency budget. The rest will go for a pro Gram of Earth orbiting satellites planetary probes aeronautical research and a limited Energy re search program. The two voyagers scheduled to examine Jupiter Saturn and perhaps uranus Are another step in the United states s program of systematic planetary exploration. That program began with spaceships studying the planets nearest the Sun Earth Mercury Mars and Venus which have undergone considerable evolution Ary change in the last four billion to five billion years. But the outer planets Saturn Jupiter uranus and " this ship s going to revolutionize the Way we do business in space " Neptune were formed in a colder part of the Sola system and the evolutionary process 4as been slower so slow in places that scientists believe conditions Are still much As they were at the time of creation. A second voyager will head for the outer reaches this weekend. Venus will be the target of missions in 1978 and 1980. A Jupiter orbiter is set for 1980, and Nasa Hopes to Send Amobile Landing vehicle to Mars in 1984. Also planned is a spacecraft rendezvous with Halley s Comet in 1982. Nasa s major aeronautical efforts Are aimed at air Craft materials noise pollution and fuel Economy Large Turbine engines for general aviation advanced helicopter engines and rotors improved vertical Short Takeoff and Landing Craft and an experimental variable Cycle engine that would be applicable to a . Supersonic transport should a decision be made to pursue such a pro Gram in the next 10 to 15 years. The Agency working with Energy research and development officials is using space age technology in experimenting with several Energy generating devices including windmills electric cars batteries and solar heated Homes. Officials also Are exploring future joint space mis Sions with the soviet Union As a follow up to the successful 1975 Apollo soyuz flight in which . And russian manned spaceships linked up in orbit. Being considered is a linkup of a space shuttle with soyuz. Once we determine the shuttle s capability i Trinkwell be doing things we Don t even dream about today said Frosch. We re just really beginning to get our imagination fired up about what we can do out  Friday september 2,1977 Boeing concept of an enormous solar Power satellite As possible first step in human colonization of space. The stars and stripes Page 15