SHUTTLE CONTRACT SIGNED PALMDALE MIGHT GET MODIFICATION WORK.

PALMDALE - NASA and the United Space Alliance have signed a $62 million agreement for space shuttle modification work that could come to Palmdale.

In announcing the modification to the space flight operations contract, National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials listed Palmdale as one of the work sites. However, whether the work will come to Palmdale will depend on where NASA decides to conduct future shuttle modifications - in California or in Florida.

``It hasn't been determined where the orbiter maintenance and modification down period will be done,'' said Jack King, spokesman for United Space Alliance. ``We have been authorized to hire people at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for the orbiter inspection, but no decision has been made.''

The work, which is planned during regularly scheduled future shuttle maintenance periods over the next five years, will involve the complete refurbishment of the 11 hydraulic actuators on each space shuttle orbiter.

The actuators move the vehicle's rudder, speed brake, elevons and main engines during flight.

In addition to being fully rebuilt, the actuators will be modified to correct a problem identified during previous shuttle maintenance work, NASA officials said. The modification involves replacing a device called a spool stop, which could become unseated in their present configuration.

Endeavour will be the first shuttle to have the refurbished actuators installed during its next maintenance period, planned to begin in 2003.

NASA plans to conduct one more orbiter maintenance and modification project, in 2002 on the shuttle Discovery, before the actuator work begins. Whether Palmdale gets that work could be a harbinger of NASA plans for future modification projects.

NASA officials had planned to make an announcement earlier this month about where work on Discovery was to be conducted, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon disrupted meetings of shuttle program officials and NASA headquarters administrators.

United Space Alliance was authorized by NASA to hire about 200 workers in Florida in the event the space agency decides in favor of doing the work at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA said that authorization was done to keep the agency's options open and that no decision had be made.

Typically, United Space Alliance's subcontractor, Boeing Space Systems Division, uses about 300 workers in Palmdale to conduct the modifications and inspections on orbiters. The work typically lasts nine to 10 months and can cost upward of $75 million.

A debate over where shuttle modification work should be performed has raged on for a decade with all but one of the modification projects coming to Palmdale.

In a 1998 study by United Space Alliance, it was determined that it costs $5.3 million more for each shuttle to be modified in Palmdale. However, Kennedy cannot launch nine to 12 shuttle flights a year and perform shuttle modifications without investing $48.8 million in additional facilities, the study said.

The possibility of losing the orbiter work prompted members of the California Legislature to pass a resolution calling for NASA to keep shuttle modification work at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.

The resolution also asks NASA to build more space shuttles, something NASA officials said they have no interest in doing. NASA is working on a multiyear plan to develop a new reusable spaceship and on efforts to keep the existing shuttle fleet flying for several more years.

The resolution also asks NASA to consider landing shuttles at Air Force Plant 42 when they are scheduled for maintenance or modification. Shuttles normally land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after missions, then are flown piggyback atop a NASA 747 to Palmdale, costing about $1 million.