Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
NASA plans to restructure aerospace research to focus resources on long-term "leapfrog" technologies. The move ends NASA support for near-term product development by US industry.
A technology to be pursued is the "morphing aircraft" which will change its shape using smart structures and controls to improve performance and safety. "The morphing aircraft will not fly next year. It's a 10 to 20 year vision," says NASA administrator Dan Goldin.
The restructuring is part of NASA's fiscal year 2002 budget request, which seeks a 2% increase in funding to $14.51 billion. Human spaceflight, including the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, would receive $7.3 billion, and aerospace $2.38 billion out of a total of $7.2 billion for science, aeronautics and technology.
Funding for new projects such as the 21st century aerospace vehicle, airspace systems simulation and design for safety will come at the expense of programmes with a narrow, near-term focus. NASA's rotorcraft programme will be terminated. "It achieved its goals, and there is only marginal improvement left," says Goldin.
"NASA is no longer in the business of subsidising industry to make incremental steps," Goldin says. "We are moving away from mature technologies to bold new technologies that will excite people to come back to aerospace."
Goldin believes US aerospace is losing its competitive edge because industry has caused NASA to focus on "small, evolutionary advances". He says: "We need breakthroughs. NASA can't support companies with near-term product development." The shake-up "is repositioning research to look into the future rather than subsidising the past".
Lockheed Martin's Colorado-based astronautics unit is to shed 600 jobs this year, reducing employment to 5,000 people. It blames slow demand for satellite launches, which has hit rocket sales. It says it lost at least one NASA contract after the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander, which it built, failed in 1999. The unit also cut jobs last year.Source: Flight International
