IDEAS & TRENDS
IDEAS & TRENDS; The Military Finds An Alternative to The Space Shuttle
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: June 18, 1989
LAST week's maiden flight of a giant new Air Force rocket marks the beginning of the end of the military's ties to the troubled space shuttle.
The rocket, the Titan 4, is the first American launcher big enough to carry shuttle-sized payloads. It is now scheduled to launch dozens of satellites for the military that were once destined to ride the shuttle, a main preoccupation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for nearly two decades. In fact, the shuttle's payload bay and its powerful engines were originally designed largely with big military satellites in mind.
''You can characterize the whole shuttle episode as a detour NASA got roped into by the Air Force,'' said John E. Pike, head of space policy for the Federation of American Scientists, a private group based in Washington. NASA officials disagree, saying the craft has a multitude of scientific jobs, including the launching later this year of the Galileo mission to Jupiter and next year of the Hubble space telescope. But the loss of the military cargo has sent NASA scrambling for new payloads, referred to as ''flight opportunities'' on its new shuttle schedule released last week. The military loss compounds the setback NASA suffered when President Reagan tried to help the private space industry by ordering all commercial satellites off the winged spaceship.
The Titan launched last week is the first of dozens that the Air Force plans to use to free itself from dependence on the shuttle fleet, which was grounded for 32 months after the Challenger disaster in January 1986. An Air Force Invention
The Air Force itself originally championed the idea of a winged, reusable spaceship. In the early 1960's, Pentagon planners envisioned manned missions for spying and launching attacks from space. The vehicle they had in mind, a small winged spaceship known as Dynasoar, was approved in 1960. But the program was canceled in 1963 because of budget constraints.
Undeterred, Pentagon planners were hard at work by the mid-1960's on designs for much larger, more practical ships that would carry not only people but also large payloads like satellites, according to a new five-volume NASA history of the shuttle. It was not until the late 1960's that NASA, which was looking for an act to follow its landing of astronauts on the moon, started working with the Air Force on shuttle-type spacecraft. NASA wanted one to launch space-station parts and build a stepping stone to Mars. The military was mainly interested in deploying spy satellites.
Facing intense budget pressure, NASA told the White House in December 1971 that it wanted a small shuttle with a payload bay 14 feet wide and 45 feet long and engines powerful enough to lift 45,000 pounds into orbit. But the military wanted a larger version that would lift 65,000 pounds and have a payload bay 15 feet wide and 60 feet long. The reason the Pentagon wanted the bigger shuttle was to launch a powerful spy satellite later called the KH-12.
President Nixon approved the larger shuttle. ''Its military potential was a key factor in his decision,'' said John M. Logsdon, director of the space policy program at George Washington University.
In the 1980's, as the shuttle flew civilian flights, its payload bay was often half empty. Before the fleet was grounded, the Defense Department flew only two secret shuttle missions to deploy satellites.
Even before the disaster, the Air Force was edging away from its creation, fearful of safety risks. It placed its first order for 10 Titan 4's in February 1985, adding 13 more after the shuttle exploded. It now wants at least 18 more. Through fiscal 1995, the Titan 4 program is expected to cost $12.2 billion.
Mr. Pike of the Federation of American Scientists predicted that the KH-12, the spy satellite that determined the shuttle's size in the first place, will never make a shuttle flight. The first one is to be launched later this year on a Titan 4, he said.
A few years ago, the military had agreed to use one-third of all shuttle flights. Now all that has changed.
''They've been pulling their flights off the manifest as soon as the new rockets come on line,'' said George Diller, a NASA spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Through 1991, only six shuttle flights will be dedicated entirely to military missions. One is planned for 1993 and after that, none. Through 1995, the shuttle will fly less than half the military missions originally planned.
While some experts applaud the military's split from NASA, saying national security demands a reliable unmanned launcher, others note the hidden costs of the divorce. The KH-12 and its sister satellites, for instance, were originally designed to be serviced by shuttle astronauts, who would refuel their engines, extending their life from five to as much many as 15 years. But unless the military forges a new tie to NASA, that option will be gone.
Another potential problem, experts say, is that the Air Force could be extremely vulnerable if a Titan accident grounded the rocket fleet. Scheduling a special shuttle mission would require years of preparation.
''Pre-Challenger, the Air Force had all its eggs in the shuttle basket,'' Mr. Pike said. ''Now it has got them all in the Titan basket.''
A Titan 4 rocket thundering off a Florida launching pad last week (Associated Press); graph of annual funds for space programs of NASA vs. Defense Dept., 1981-1989 (Source: General Accounting Office)