REAGAN ASKED TO INTERCEDE TO SAVE LANDSAT PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310050-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 50
• Publication Date: April 6, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310050-6
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY1
6 April 1987
Reagan Asked to Intercede
To Save Landsat Program
By Theresa M. Foley
Washington?Top U. S. defense and intel-
ligence officials have requested a meeting
with President Reagan to discuss their
concerns that the Landsat remote sensing
program will be ended soon, a senior De-
fense Dept. official testified before Con-
gress last week.
Donald Latham, assistant secretary of
Defense for command, control, communi-
cations and intelligence, said Defense Sec-
retary Caspar W. Weinberger and acting
Central Intelligence Agency Director
Robert_Gatehave asked Reagan for a
cabinet-level meeting on Landsat. Gates
recently wrote National Security Council
Director Frank Carlucci to call attention
to Landsat problems, Latham said.
National Security
"The Landsat system will surely in-
crease in its contribution to our national
security?but only if it survives the series
of difficulties caused by the process of
commercialization," Latham said. He pre-
sented the subcommittees with two ver-
sions of his testimony?open and classi-
fied?explaining the importance of
Landsat to the Defense Dept. (AwacsT
Mar. 23, p. 62).
Latham was very supportive of continu-
ing Landsat, but stopped short of endors-
ing a two-satellite system, calling only for
the launch and operation of Landsat 6.
Unless Reagan intercedes, the fate of
Landsat will be left in the hands of the
Office of Management and Budget, which
has a long history of opposition to contin-
ued federal investment in the program.
OMB is considering a revised Landsat
proposal that was received after the last
OMB-approved plan, for a one-satellite
system, was rejected by the Senate (AwszsT
Feb. 9, p. 17). The Commerce Dept.,
which has responsibility for the Landsat
program, wrote OMB Mar. 4 that only
two Landsat options remain, approval of a
two-satellite plan or termination of the
program.
OMB policy has been that the private
sector role in financing Landsat should be
greater and that the federal government
should not fund both follow-on satellites,
even though that was part of the original
agreement with Eosat. Congress, which
supports the continuation of Landsat, is
insisting on adherence to the two-satellite
program mandated in the original con-
tract.
A Landsat hearing before two House
subcommittees last week, aimed at shed-
ding some light on Landsat's future, left a
"fog of confusion" around the future of
the program, subcommittee members said.
OMB Deputy Director Joseph R. Wright
said the Administration continues to sup-
port Landsat _commercialization, but that
its benefits do not justify increased federal
investment in the technology. "If Con-
gress were to decide not to continue Land-
sat, I question whether the impact on the
users would be significant," Wright said.
The Landsat archives contain nearly one
million scenes and films, and additional
"data will still be available from U. S.
allies' satellites," he said.
Defense Dept. has not been willing to
financially support Landsat, and other us-
ers have not stated strongly enough that
the data are needed, he said, citing some
of the reasons against continuing Landsat.
Demand for Landsat products has not de-
veloped, he said. According to Wright,
the Commerce Dept. has submitted "con-
fusing" proposals that have too many
technical changes and appeared likely to
result in cost overruns.
Wright said he 'hopes the private sector
will step forward and fund a Landsat sys-
tem. OMB came under attack during the
hearing for backing away from its $250-
million commitment to Eosat, the compa-
ny that was selected by the Commerce
Dept. to privatize the Landsat system.
Data Continuity
Rep. James Scheuer (D.-N. Y.), chair-
man of the House subcommittee on natu-
ral resources, agriculture research and the
environment, said the congressional con-
sensus is that a two-satellite system is "an
indispensable necessity to preserve conti-
nuity of data flow."
Eosat's proposed Landsat follow-on sys-
tem has changed technically several times
since the contract was awarded. Eosat
submitted a new proposal and additional
costs in February. Commerce Dept. offi-
cials testified that the contract may have
to be recompeted as a result.
The latest Eosat proposal called for two
satellites based on the Tiros weather satel-
lite bus, a switch from the current con-
tract that includes use of the large,
serviceable Omnistar spacecraft. The satel-
lites would be launched on Titan 2 launch
vehicles, not the space shuttle. A West
Coast shuttle or Titan 4 launch would
have been required for the Omnistar plat-
form. While the shuttle may not be avail-
able from the West Coast, Titan 4s are
considered to be too expensive for the
program. The new satellites will cost
$296.8 million, nearly $50 million more
than the original contract, and be
launched about 18 months later than first
planned.
Clarence Brown, deputy secretary of
the Commerce Dept., cited four factors
that have affected Landsat commercializa-
tion this year:
? The unwillingness of the private sec-
tor users and Eosat to share in financing
the program.
? Increasing budget deficit reduction
pressures.
? Increasing costs associated with re-
duced shuttle launch capability following
last year's accident.
? Competition with the French and
Japanese.
Rep. George Brown (D.-Calif.) said he
fears that the U. S. will be bypassed very
quickly by the Japanese, French or a mul-
tinational consortium in remote sensing.
Other nations can be expected to launch
satellites with 1-meter resolution or real-
time data flow. "We're going to be dead
in the water," he said.
During the hearing, questions were
raised on whether the Eosat concept was
the best possible in the face of increased
international competition. "We may be in
a position where we have to renegotiate or
recompete under procurement law because
we're seeing technology change and the
competition move faster," Commerce's
Brown said. "Maybe we aren't in the
game" with the Eosat plan, he said. 0
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310050-6