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The space station, which could eventually cost up to $30 billion, would serve as a laboratory for scientific, commercial and possibly military research, as well as a base for planetary exploration. Last week contracts for its construction went to Boeing ($750 million), McDonnell Douglas ($1.9 billion), Rockwell International ($1.6 billion) and General Electric ($800 million). Nineteen shuttle missions -- only six fewer than have been flown since the program began in 1981 -- would be required to carry the station's 200 tons of hardware into orbit.
That daunting prospect is one reason why practically no one takes seriously NASA's contention that the space station could become operational as early as 1995. Says former Astronaut Donald ("Deke") Slayton, head of a private launch firm based in Houston: "The law of averages says it won't happen." Moreover, many scientists remain opposed to the concept of a manned station, contending that most of the experiments NASA has in mind can be conducted on unmanned missions.
But the pressures to get an American laboratory of some kind into space are strong. By a sobering coincidence, on the day after Fletcher made his contract announcement, the Soviet crew commander marked his 300th consecutive day aboard Mir, the world's only space station.