NASA MAY GO BACK TO FUTURE APOLLO-TYPE CRAFT COULD BE SPACE 'LIFEBOAT'.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - NASA consultants took a look at the agency's glory days while seeking a new way to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

A team of experts concluded that an Apollo-style capsule could meet the goals laid out for the nation's next manned spacecraft, but it requires more than just yanking the old moon mission equipment out of museums and storage, according to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration report.

``We would pretty much have to do everything new - new avionics, new structure, new everything,'' said team member Ken Szalai, a former director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

Before choosing among competing designs for a new orbital space plane, NASA officials asked for the experts to examine the old Apollo capsule before space the space agency.

``We wanted to have all possible information before making that decision,'' NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said. ``The next step is up to any of the contractors. It's up to the individual contractors to decide if they want to pursue it.''

The Boeing Co.'s division in Seal Beach, a Lockheed Martin company based in Denver and a two-companies team - from Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia and Northrop Grumman in El Segundo - are designing competing space plane concepts under NASA contracts totaling $135 million.

The companies have wide latitude to design a winged craft, a capsule or a lifting-body craft.

Space agency officials want the new craft, which was in the works before the Columbia shuttle disaster, ready for emergency use as a ``lifeboat'' for the International Space Station by 2010 and for regular use carrying astronauts to and from the station by 2012.

It must hold at least four astronauts and be safer and easier than an old space shuttle to prepare for launches.

A capsule similar to the Apollo moon mission's command module could be used to bring astronauts back to Earth from the station, the new report says. With a propulsion system to maneuver in space, a command module coupled with a second module could take astronauts to the space station.

``On one hand, the Apollo system is well understood, and the documentation should be helpful as a starting point,'' the report authors wrote. ``On the other hand, it was concluded that virtually every system would have to be redesigned, even if it were decided to be replicated.''

The team determined that using leftover Apollo hardware would not be possible because it is obsolete and some components and materials simply aren't produced anymore. There are also doubts about the value of 1960s drawings in an age of computer-aided design.

``The drawings are probably of doubtful help,'' Szalai said.

The team looked at the concept of a command nodule vehicle for crew return based on the Apollo command module used in the 1960s and 1970s. The new capsule would have the same outer mold lines as the original Apollo capsules, small enough to be carried to the space station inside a shuttle.

The original Apollo command module was more than 11 feet high and had a base diameter just under 13 feet. It accommodated three astronauts for the moon missions.

A modified version of the command module was proposed as a rescue vehicle for Skylab, the space laboratory that orbited the Earth in the 1970s. At that time, NASA determined such a command module could hold a crew of at least four astronauts.

If the capsule was made 5 percent to 8 percent bigger, it could accommodate six or seven astronauts and still be small enough to be delivered to the space station by a shuttle.

One drawback to the capsule idea is that the Apollo and earlier spacecraft landed by parachute and was far less maneuverable during descent than a winged spacecraft.

For the lifeboat function, NASA officials want a craft that could rapidly separate from the International Space Station in an emergency and return to Earth.

``It would need a lot of ground recovery sites,'' Szalai said of a capsule design. ``Those sites would have to be there 24-7.''

The report was prepared by Szalai, who worked on guidance and navigation control systems for the Apollo program; former astronaut Vance Brand, the deputy director of aerospace projects at Dryden; Aaron Cohen, the former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center; Dale Meyers, former program manager for the Apollo command and service module projects for Rockwell; and John Young, a former Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle astronaut.

Among the supporters of the capsule concept is Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., who is a member of the Appropriations Committee subcommittee that oversees NASA funding. Weldon believes such a spacecraft would be cheaper to develop and operate than a winged spacecraft and could be used for cargo missions and eventually even a Mars mission or new moon mission.

Weldon spoke in favor of the capsule concept before a gathering of space- travel advocates on Monday at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

``We need to field a system that does not require an inordinate amount of R and D (research and development), and it must be a system that is not overly expensive to develop, operate and maintain,'' Weldon said.

``My studying of space policy and history have led me to consider the conclusion that an expendable capsule system, akin to the Apollo command module, may be the best way to do this.''

The initial contracts leave open the possibility that different versions of the craft could be developed for the separate roles of emergency lifeboat and regular space transportation. Also left open is the possibility of multiple vehicles for the crew-return mission.