ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the growing controversy over the Space Station program might be resolved, given a range of scenarios. It shows that achievement of the current program baseline is an unlikely scenario, and presents continued program instability and possible program termination as two more likely scenarios. The chapter examines "business as usual" — that is, the de facto policy which attempts to stabilize the program and to minimize the appearance of instability — probably leads either to a space station built down in increments or to program termination and possibly a restructuring of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. It also considers how the present Station might be redesigned in order to salvage something from an investment that will approach $4 billion by the end of fiscal year 1990. The instability of the Space Station program is a symptom of an underlying problem, the lack of program resilience in an evolving environment.
