WASHINGTON-President Clinton, facing high-tech competitive pressures and stung by national security problems from increased reliance on China and others for launches of American-made satellites, last week called for an investigation of the rash of U.S. space launch failures over the past nine months.
The White House pegged total losses in lost government flight hardware and commercial satellites at $3.5 billion during this period.
Loral Corp., Motorola Inc., Hughes Electronics Co. and others rely heavily on China, Russia and the Ukraine for space launches because they can do it faster and cheaper than the United States.
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing last Thursday on the troubled state of the U.S. space launch industry. Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), a member of the panel, has a bill to foster development of the commercial space launch business through U.S. government assistance.
