HARD TIMES AT MISSION CONTROL

Hoping to stave off radical GOP budget cuts, NASA chief Daniel Goldin announced another wave of layoffs at the space agency to meet President Clinton's call for a $5 billion reduction in space spending by the year 2000. NASA will eliminate 28,000 civil service and contractor jobs, as part of the Administration's strategy to spare major programs and the agency's 10 primary field centers. But Goldin warned that a Republican plan to save $2 billion more would cut too close to the bone.