BUSH PLAN IS SOUTHLAND'S GAIN AEROSPACE PUSH TO AID LOCAL ECONOMY.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

Southern California's aerospace sector, which helped put men on the moon, create a permanent outpost in space and breach the solar system's boundary, should play a prominent role in the Bush administration's push to establish a lunar base and send a manned craft to Mars, economists and industry officials said Wednesday.

While it is too soon to guess at the local economic boost from the president's $12 billion space exploration plan, past history suggests it will be significant.

``This will be a big shot in the arm,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``It won't be quite the scale of the Apollo program because so much of the manufacturing activity has moved out of Southern California, but a lot of the (research and development) work would be done in the region.''

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has three research centers in California: Dryden at Edwards Air Force Base, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and Ames in Northern California. Additionally, dozens of small and large aerospace companies remain in the state.

``In general, it seems like there should be more jobs for California,'' said Janice Dunn, director of federal government relations for the California Space Authority, the state's spaceport authority. ``We are the only state in the nation that can do the work end-to-end. We can come up with the concept; we can come up with the design; we can manufacture the spacecraft; we can launch it; and when it has been launched, we have the control and tracking capability.''

California also has history on its side. Much of the work on the Mercury and Apollo programs that resulted in six manned lunar missions was done here.

The Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne unit in Canoga Park designed and built 30 engines that powered the huge Saturn V rockets that took Apollo astronauts to the moon and the engine that got their lunar lander off it. And the lunar command module was built at the then North American Aviation facility in Downey.

``Despite changes in the aerospace industry in recent years we still have a significance presence of engineering and manufacturing excellence here. That would undoubtedly play a significant role in any kind of space initiative to the moon and Mars,'' said Boeing spokesman Dan Blake, whose father was a design engineer on guidance and navigation systems for the Apollo program.

The Bush plan calls for just $1 billion in new spending but some estimates suggest it would cost hundreds of billions to achieve all the program's goals. In contrast, the prior lunar program cost about $19.4 billion, 34 percent of NASA's budget at the time.

There was some skepticism about that plan, just as there is today.

Todd Strickland, president of Canyon Engineering products in Santa Clarita, isn't sure Bush's plan is wise. Strickland's company designs and manufactures fluid control components, including some used in a water fountain on the International Space Station.

``Of course it's exciting for people in the aerospace industry, but it would be egocentric to focus just on that aspect. Fiscally, it's not the right time,'' Strickland said.

Staff writers Jim Skeen and Nicholas Grudin contributed to this report.

Gregory J. Wilcox, [phone]

greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com