THE 1991 “FRED”SPACE STATION REDESIGN
Notes:
The Space Station Freedom project finally collapsed under its own weight in 1990, when the design was found to be 23% overweight, over budget, too complicated to assemble while providing 34% too little power for its users. A NASA panel led by Bill Fisher and Charles Price then discovered that 2,282-3,276 hours of EVA “spacewalks” per year vs. NASA's goal of 500 EVA hours/year... Congress consequently demanded yet another redesign in October 1990 while requesting further cost reductions as the Fiscal 1991 budget was cut from $2.5 billion to $1.9 billion. NASA unveiled the result in March 1991. The resulting new configuration shown here was mockingly referred to as “Fred” by the programs critics, underscoring the truncated nature of the design.
The Space Station assembly sequence was greatly simplified by switching to shorter,prefabricated truss segments that required no assembly in space. Only 250-300 hours of annual EVA “spacewalks” were now required for maintaining the Station's external areas. One set of solar arrays were deleted, reducing the power from 75KW to 56KW although 30KW still would be available for users. The total cost was reduced by $1.6 billion, to $16.9 billion (=$11.2 billion in 1984 dollars) as the maximum annual budget was reduced from $3 billion to $2.5 billion. NASA intended to spend $2.02 billion on the project in Fiscal Year 1992, followed by $2.3 billion in FY 1993, $2.5-2.6 billion/year in 1994-96.
The redesigned Space Station would have required a total of 23 Shuttle launches vs. about 29 for the previous configuration. The first launch was now scheduled for November 1995 and the Station would be permanently manned in September 1999 after 17 Shuttle flights.
“Fred” was considerably smaller than its predecessor, spanning only 108 meters across as the “Dual Keel” adapter segments finally were deleted.
The 1991 Space Station work redistribution plan. General Electric's Work Package 3 contract with NASA/Goddard was terminated along with the Station's remaining external payloads and polar platform. The only remaining mission was now life sciences and microgravity research.
