DRYDEN CUTS CUSHIONED CENTER'S WORK AT CORE OF NASA'S RESEARCH.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center will likely escape drastic loss of jobs because of efforts to soften budget cuts and retain key functions in aeronautics research.

In approving a $16.4 billion budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Congress added $60 million for aeronautics research and directed the agency to maintain the ``core competencies'' at its centers - such as flight testing and flight simulation at Dryden.

``As a result, civil-servant employment is likely to remain flat,'' said Dryden spokesman Alan Brown. ``At this point, at Dryden, we don't anticipate another buyout.''

NASA had planned to cut Dryden's work force to 403 workers by 2007.

Dryden had about 568 civil servant employees in the 2004 budget year, but through previous buyouts and normal attrition, that has been reduced to about 495 workers.

With the restored $60 million, the aeronautics research portion of the NASA budget stands at more than $912 million. NASA officials were directed to report back to Congress in early 2006 with a plan on how to allocate aeronautics research funds.

``Included in this plan should be a definition of work that enhances United States competitiveness,'' Senate and House of Representatives negotiators wrote in their report on the budget for the agency.

Congress and NASA Administrator Mike Griffin called it important to retain key skills at the agency's research centers, so plans to outsource work have been scaled back, and more work will be done in-house.

``These scientists and engineers must continue to work at the cutting edge of their disciplines so that they can remain world-class,'' congressional negotiators wrote in their report.

NASA is going through a restructuring before development of a new spaceship to replace the shuttles and take astronauts to orbit. That spacecraft is envisioned as a first step toward returning astronauts to the moon.

Dryden will play a role in the development of the new spacecraft, called the crew exploration vehicle. Work at Dryden will include flight testing of a launch-abort system, drop tests of a subscale model to evaluate landing and approach technologies and procedures, parachute qualification testing, and range-safety efforts.

On Nov. 18, Scott Horowitz, a former astronaut and Edwards Air Force Base test pilot, visited Dryden to examine its facilities that can help in development of the new spacecraft.

Horowitz, now a NASA associate administrator, spent about an hour discussing the new spacecraft idea with Dryden workers.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com