Interviews and an examination of federal documents and testimony found that NASA managers failed to grasp the complexity and cost of the station project, ignored warnings about cost growth and over-optimism, and, as a result, mismanaged taxpayers' money.

"It has taken a lot of folks in this agency to realize that this probably is the hardest mission we have ever attempted," Hawes said. "Things that in the best engineering judgment ... at the time, seemed like reasonable assumptions ... in many cases have proven to be much bigger issues than we thought."

The miscalculations have proven devastating.

To save money, the space station's crew won't expand from three to seven anytime soon. Man hours for experiments have been slashed almost 90 percent, from 180 hours per week to 20.

Overall, science and research will be cut 40 percent, with robots doing most of the remaining work. By cutting science, NASA hopes to meet a spending limit set by Congress.

But science was the very heart and purpose of what will become a $95 billion public investment.

And if cutting science seems bad, it appears the overruns could have been worse.

Thanks to a 19-month delay caused by the Russians, engineers at Kennedy Space Center had time for extensive testing of station components that otherwise would have been launched into orbit without the checks.

Engineers found more than 1,000 software problems, including one that would have forced the space shuttle to return with its payload. The tests may have saved about $1 billion, including the cost of an extra $500 million shuttle launch.

The story of the International Space Station is one of big money, hardball politics, evasive tactics, technological roadblocks and wide-eyed brilliance. It is a tale of a fallen kingpin, clever strategists, and youthful heroes who have kept the explorers' dreams alive.

Bankrolling it all: U.S. taxpayers. Including shuttle launches, the entire space station program now will cost an average of $334 for every American adult and child.

Today, Alpha streaks around the globe at 17,500 mph, a shade of its promise.

President Ronald Reagan envisioned the station as a platform where cures could be found for diseases such as cancer and AIDS. It would be a jumping-off point for investigation of distant planets. It would symbolize American benevolence and international cooperation after the Cold War.

But now, NASA administrator Dan Goldin struggles with unique problems created when the can-do spirit of a corps of engineers and rocket scientists collides with fiscal conservatism in the White House. Goldin has resorted to "tin-cup" diplomacy by asking the Japanese and Italian partners for money and technology.

For the $8 billion NASA overspent on the station during the last three years, the space agency could have launched 16 space shuttles. Or, if it were so inclined, paid for 80,000 students' college degrees in engineering or physics. The overruns add up to about $27 per American citizen.

On May 3, a few days after Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield described the exhilaration of dangling from Alpha by a hand, his "face in the wind," President George W. Bush's accountants took their first public shots at Goldin and his prize centerpiece:

"Looking at the history of cost growth on the space station ... it is hard to know how many new opportunities for space exploration may have been lost due to the year-to-year struggle of adding funding to the station," said Sean O'Keefe, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, in testimony May 3.

Later, Goldin responded dryly, "He's entitled to his opinion."

But O'Keefe's message was clear. The president would not bail out the agency.

"Business as usual must come to an end," O'Keefe said. "The station must begin to change its culture and throttle back its spending plans to live within its means."