Space

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AMENDMENT NO. 3028

At the end of subtitle B of title II, add the following:

SEC. 219 LOW COST LAUNCH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

(a) Amount From Air Force Funding--Of the total amount authorized to be appropriated under section 201(3), $5,000,000 is available for the Low Cost Launch Development Program.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise to offer an amendment to provide $5 million for programs that will radically reduce space launch costs. I understand that this amendment has been accepted by the Chairman and Ranking Member, and I thank them for their cooperation in this regard.

This amendment will provide support for further development of robust and cost-effective launch vehicles. One such program, the Scorpius Low Cost Launch Development Program, has met development goals on or under budget in every instance. Delays in the program have been a result of bureaucratic delays, rather than technical problems. This is a solid program, and it deserves our full support.

In addition to a need for the U.S. to regain a competitive position in the international market for space launch, critical national security concerns can be addressed by reducing these costs.

Achieving reduced launch costs is clearly in the national interest. From 1993 through 1997, the United States spent roughly $11 billion for unmanned space launches--well over $2 billion annually. Due to these unnecessary and exorbitant costs, we have lost the commercial space launch industry, which America pioneered, to overseas competitors.

Moreover, the excessive costs of space launch in this country have induced current and past Presidents to allow satellite launches from China, Russia and France. It currently costs $10,000 to $12,000 a pound to launch a payload using U.S. rockets. In contrast, China charges $4,000 to $5,000 per pound. Thus, satellite companies can save up to $50 million by using foreign source to put their satellites into orbit.

There is a further national security objective that demand cheaper space launch capability. Command and control elements of our military force increasingly rely on digital and satellite communications capability. These communications capabilities and global positioning systems require sufficient satellites for effective implementation. The U.S. can either pay exorbitant amounts to attain adequate communications capabilities or we can support low-cost launch programs now that will radically reduce the costs incurred later.

I have been following closely the progress of Microcosm, a small California company, and its Scorpius program. This is an effort to lower space launch cost from the current level of over $7,000 per pound to low Earth orbit to under $1,000 per pound. If successful, the current launch cost for a 15,000 pound military communications satellite would drop from over $75 million to less than $15 million. The over $2 billion per year U.S. cost would drop to less than $255 million per year--for the same level of effort.

The design of these systems is robust with a margin of two-to-one compared to current rockets with a near one-to-four factor, almost nothing. Its launch crew is comprised of 12 technicians, not the current hundreds, even thousands of engineers needed today. Those same 12 technicians, when not actually firing the rocket, would be assembling them. It is truly a simple design.

Scorpius would be a bona fide `launch on demand' vehicle, able to lift off within 8 hours after the payload arrives at the launch site. Its short, squat design, though less elegant than present rockets, makes it oblivious to weather limitations, such as high wind. It would not require the extensive launch infrastructure, such as gantry, providing great flexibility of where it could be fixed. If desirable, Scorpius could even

be sea-launched. Our military field commanders would be able to request and receive the satellite resources they need when and where they need them.

Microcosm has already received 12 SBIR contracts for Scorpius totaling roughly $4 million. All SBIR contracts were awarded competitively. In Fiscal year 1997, Congress specifically funded Scorpius with the program receiving $7.5 million; in Fiscal Year 1998, Congress again specified Scorpius funding, this time at $10 million. The results have been impressive:

19 5,000 pound thrust engines built, each at a cost under $5,000--establishing a benchmark cost per pound of thrust of less than $1, a significant improvement over current engines;

19 engines test-fired including 8 each for 200 seconds of continuous burn--the performance required to get a payload to LEO (low Earth orbit);

the 5,000 pound thrust engine, with injector, completed and qualified for flight;

design completed, including the Critical Design Review, for the 20,000 pound thrust engine;

the entire avionics package completed and successfully qualified at Marshall Space Flight Center: Huntsville, Alabama;

fuel and cryogenic tanks, with liners, designed and fabricated for the SR-1 sub-orbital vehicle;

a new test stand, designed for engines up to 100,000 pounds of thrust; and

technical spin-offs that could benefit non-Scorpius programs as well, such as the gas generator.

The funding requested for Fiscal Year 1999 would yield similar results. With adequate funding in 1999, Microcosm could achieve the following:

design, development and test Scorpius engines through 80,000 pounds of thrust;

preliminary design and testing of the 320,000 pound thrust engine;

test flights of the sub-orbital vehicles; and

preliminary design of the light-lift orbital vehicle.

The program has been subjected to many senior technical reviews by both government and industry experts. No significant technical problem has been identified.

Low cost launch programs are a bargain. We have a simple choice. Either we will continue to fall behind in our competitive position for space launch costs and risk U.S. security through the transfer of sensitive technologies to be launched by other countries, or we can attain over 85% savings to taxpayers for space launch needs in the near future. These leap-frog technologies could make space launch truly affordable. With our support these efforts will recapture an American industry--and jobs--now lost to foreign countries.