Military influence to grow at NASA

Orlando Sentinel ^ | October 9, 2002 | Gwyneth K. Shaw

[Cincinatus' Wife]

***WASHINGTON -- The head of NASA and a host of top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that beginning with next year's budget, the link between the country's civil space agency and its military counterpart will be much closer. But other than vague platitudes about integrating research and development -- and a promise that the 2004 budget, which is due out in early February, will make everything clearer -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief Sean O'Keefe was tight-lipped about any practical changes.

...The biggest question mark about a stronger bond between NASA and the military is how it will affect the push to replace the shuttle. The $4.8 billion program, which is supposed to develop two designs for a safer, cheaper, reusable launch vehicle by 2006, appears headed for a major revamping -- with the Air Force playing a much larger role.

But O'Keefe was cryptic about what may happen, and when.

"We're in the middle of a review right now," he said after the meeting. The program, known as the Strategic Launch Initiative, is the latest incarnation of what has been a sore spot for NASA. Several attempts to build a new shuttle have ended in engineering problems and red ink. Just last week, a General Accounting Office report that said NASA has done such a poor job of figuring out exactly what it wants and needs out of a new vehicle that it should not proceed with next month's scheduled winnowing of the number of designs. On Monday, O'Keefe would not say whether NASA would postpone that selection. He said the process is now more complicated than just choosing a concepts from the larger pool.

"The question now is not, which 4 or 5 do you choose," he said. "The question now is, which path or direction are we taking?"***