The United States must develop a longterm peaceful space program and abandon its effort to "close off" space as a frontier, the leader of a national-space fobby said last night

Speaking before a Science Center crowd of about 30 students. Davis C Webb, chairman of the Campaign for Space, criticized the Reagan Administration for exploiting the country's space program for military purposes.

"Within one year NASA's [the National Aeronautics and Space Administration] research and development program will be 80 percent militarized." Webb said, adding that the civilian space program is facing "virtual extinction."

Ringer

Webb said the State Department is pressing Congress for funds to develop two orbiting laner stations which would control space and prevent spacecraft from leading earth orbit. "We are facing an extraordinary situation where, for the first time in history, a frontier may be closed off." Webb said

"There is absolutely no organized peaceful space policy in this country." Webb said, adding that the space shuttle was an expensive single-shot project and not part of a coherent space system.