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WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The White House Thursday unveiled a new national space policy that calls for sustained robotic exploration of Mars by the year 2000 and greater U.S. commercial involvement in extraterrestrial activity.
In Tacoma, Washington, where he was stumping for re-election, President Clinton called it ``the first new space policy since the end of the Cold War'' and said it assured that the United States would ``continue our leading role in space.
``We're going to continue to expand our knowledge of the universe. In December, we're going to launch a long-planned robotic mission to the surface of Mars ... This will help us to determine whether and how and when we should send human missions there,'' Clinton said.
The policy was the product of a year-long review conducted by the National Science and Technology Council and National Security Council, and formally shelved a Bush-era plan to put an American on Mars by 2019.
Playing up its potential economic benefits to the Pacific Northwest, where Boeing Corp. and other high tech firms are big employers, Clinton said the policy would ``tear down the barriers that block the development of our space industries.
``Boeing recently announced an innovative proposal to work with Russia, Ukraine and Norway to launch satellites at sea. We're going to continue to move forward,'' he said.
Clinton said a third element of the policy, some details of which are secret, would ``make sure we use space to protect our national security, to maintain our freedom, to monitor threats and compliance with our arms control treaties.''
Its promulgation followed Clinton's announcement earlier this year that a team of scientists had found tantalizing evidence that primitive life once existed on Mars, and foreshadowed the launch of two U.S. probes to the red planet.
Mars Pathfinder, the project referred to by the president, is expected to touch down on Mars on July 4, 1997 and begin scouring the surface of the planet for signs of life.
Mars Global Surveyor, a mapping satellite that will begin orbiting the planet in March, 1998, transmitting high-resolution images of its topography back to Earth, is scheduled for a Nov. 6 launch.
At least eight more robotic probes are likely to follow, U.S. officials said.
The Clinton administration scrapped President George Bush's commitment to a manned mission to Mars because of cost -- an estimated $400 billion over 30 years -- and the belief that cheaper unmanned probes could achieve similar results.
``We think it's a great idea, but it's just not economically feasible,'' a White House official said of the Bush plan. ''We've testified to that (before Congress) about 15 times over the last three years.''
The only manned operations the United States would conduct under the policy are space shuttle flights and the development of an international space station with other nations.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said the one ground-breaking element of the policy was its call for greater private-sector involvement in space activity.
``The policy seeks to stimulate private-sector investment by committing the U.S. government to purchase commercially available goods and services, and by offering stable and predictable access to federal space-related hardware,'' A White House statement said.
Clinton called Aug. 7 for a bipartisan summit on the future of the U.S. space program, and the White House said the policy was ``an important milestone in the preparation for the summit.''
Dr. Jack Gibbons, Clinton's science advisor, said defense aspects of the policy were also important.
``Our use of space is critical to preserving peace and supporting U.S. national security objectives,'' Gibbons said in a speech to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. ``That is why the policy establishes as key priorities the need to improve our military operations worldwide, monitor and respond to strategic military threats (and) monitor arms control and non-proliferation agreements.''
In another space-related development, the Federal Aviation Administration Thursday licensed what it called the world's first private commercial space launch facility, to be located about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Called the California Spaceport, the 106-acresite is located on Vandenberg Air Force Base and is leased from the U.S. Air Force by Spaceport Systems International, a limited partnership of ITT Corp. and the California Commercial Spaceport Inc.
The spaceport will provide commercial launch services to those with occasional need for access to space, such as university researchers, said the FAA's Frank Weaver in a statement.
``Traditionally, such users found the cost of obtaining adequate facilities and services difficult because they could not justify the cost of constructing and maintaining the required building and personnel,'' Weaver said. ``California Spaceport will eliminate this concern by providing these facilities to the single user at a low cost.''
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The White House on Thursday unveiled a new national space policy that calls for sustained robotic exploration of Mars by the year 2000, and greater U.S. commercial involvement in extraterrestrial activity.
In Tacoma, Wash., where he was stumping for re-election, President Clinton called it ``the first new space policy since the end of the Cold War,'' and said it assured that the United States would ``continue our leading role in space.''
``We're going to continue to expand our knowledge of the universe. In December, we're going to launch a long-planned robotic mission to the surface of Mars...This will help us to determine whether and how and when we should send human missions there,'' Clinton said.
The policy was the product of a year-long review conducted by the National Science and Technology Council and National Security Council, and formally shelved a Bush-era plan to put an American on Mars by 2019.
Clinton said the policy also would ``make sure we use space to protect our national security, to maintain our freedom, to monitor threats and compliance with our arms control treaties.''
Its promulgation followed Clinton's announcement earlier this year that a team of scientists had found tantalizing evidence that primitive life once existed on Mars, and foreshadowed the launch of two U.S. probes to the red planet.
Mars Pathfinder, the project referred to by the president, is expected to touch down on Mars on July 4, 1997 and begin scouring the surface of the planet for signs of life.
Mars Global Surveyor, a mapping satellite that will begin orbiting the planet in March, 1998, transmitting high-resolution images of its topography back to Earth, is scheduled for a Nov. 6 launch.
At least eight more robotic probes are likely to follow, U.S. officials said.
The Clinton administration scrapped President Bush's committment to a manned mission to Mars because of cost -- an estimated $400 billion over 30 years -- and the belief that cheaper unmanned probes could achieve similar results.
``We think its a great idea, but its just not economically feasible,'' a White House official said of the Bush plan. ''We've testified to that (before Congress) about 15 times over the last three years.''
The only manned operations the United States would conduct under the policy are space shuttle flights and the development of an international space station with other nations.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said the one ground-breaking element of the policy was its call for greater private-sector involvement in space activity.
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