Under the pressure of a growing backlog of unlaunched domestic satellites and increased competition from foreign space agencies, NASA finally received two pieces of good news last week. President Reagan announced Friday that he is ordering construction of a fourth orbiter to replace the shuttle Challenger, which carried seven astronauts to their death on Jan. 28. The new orbiter should be completed by 1991, its estimated $2.8 billion price to be paid in part out of money the space agency will save during the present launch hiatus. With a reduced launch schedule, the President said, the shuttle fleet will no longer...
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