INDUSTRY ALLIANCE FORMING.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

The city will join with South Bay communities and San Bernardino County to form a space-industry alliance, but the new group is not intended to usurp the state's spaceport authority, Palmdale officials said Thursday.

Palmdale will become part of the Los Angeles Area Space and Technology Alliance, an organization being formed to lobby for space-related work. The organization is being formed because the state's spaceport authority, California Space and Technology Alliance, is viewed as being too focused on Central California.

``Our intent is to complement their efforts,'' said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. ``You have to have local efforts to be effective.''

The council decided on a 3-1 vote Wednesday night to join the new alliance. Councilman Joe Davies dissented, and Councilwoman Shelley Sorsabal, a member of the state authority board, was absent.

The action came despite requests from Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, and state Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, R-Palmdale, to wait while state officials review the makeup and budget of the state authority.

``We have been involved in negotiations with the Office of Trade and Commerce Agency, CSTA (the state authority) and several interested elected state representatives and industry representatives with respect to eliminating any regional bias on CSTA's board of directors,'' said a joint letter from Knight and Runner. ``CSTA has been a willing participant in these negotiations, and its board is committed to resolving the concerns raised by regions such as the Antelope Valley and is committed to ensuring that its board truly reflects its statewide mission.''

Ledford said the City Council opted to move ahead because of hopes the new alliance will also be able assist with issues not related to space, such as the relocation of B-1B bomber depot maintenance work from Palmdale to Oklahoma. That work is expected to be transferred later this year.

``We need to get support from representatives outside the Antelope Valley. We cannot stand alone and retain work,'' Ledford said.

The CSTA became the state's spaceport authority on Jan. 1. By law, more than half of its board's membership must come from Central California, home of Vandenberg Air Force Base, the only space launch site in the state.

The state spaceport authority backs proposed legislation to reorganize its board with one-third of the members from each of three regions: Northern California, Central California and Southern California.

``We are willing to work with all groups to further space - that's what our goal is,'' said the CSTA executive director, Andrea Seastrand. ``We are a statewide organization.''

Antelope Valley leaders have been pushing for the valley to become the only or one of two or more spaceports for VentureStar, a reusable spaceship being developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale. The VentureStar effort is aimed at creating a spaceship that would dramatically lower the costs of getting payloads into orbit and open up a lucrative market for commercial space endeavors.

The governor and the state Legislature did not originally include funding for CSTA in 1998-99 budgeting, but the organization now appears likely to get $10 million this year, state officials said.

There are efforts to earmark at least $1.5 million of CSTA's funds for studies that would pave the way for VentureStar to operate out of a California launch site, state officials said.