NASA Announces Plan to Design Simpler, Less Expensive Space Station
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WASHINGTON — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Friday it will design a simpler, cheaper space station as recommended by a panel of experts.
NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly announced the new review less than a month after the completion of a yearlong reassessment of the space station design.
The Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program recommended Dec. 10 that the space station “be reconfigured to reduce cost and complexity” and that an existing 90-day time limit on redesign should be extended if needed.
Space station planning began in 1984 as an $8-billion project, but cost estimates grew over the years to $37 billion without any major structures being built.
It became evident last year that the station would require too much maintenance, that it was 143,000 pounds overweight, that it would not have enough power to run experiments and that too many space shuttle flights would be needed to build it.
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