NASA and its International Space Station contractors have about 1,000 more workers than needed and may be forced to lay off many of them, a high-profile team of auditors has found.

Key findings of station audit

*NASA has more than 1,000 workers and contract employees it doesn't need.

* Managers' accounting is so "soft," auditors couldn't figure it out.

* Cost overruns on the space station could be billions more if nothing changes * NASA hasn't grasped political reality: No bailout for budget overruns to improve station science.

And unless NASA improves its unreliable cost estimates, the station could face billions of dollars more in overruns.

The space station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force was appointed by NASA Administrator Dan Goldin to scrutinize spending and provide a clear plan for future management of the station program.

The task force's creation followed several investigations, including a report by Florida Today, that revealed severe cost overruns and mismanagement at the agency as well as a presidential order to hold the line on spending.

The future of the space station, as well as American human spaceflight, are at stake, senior government officials said.

Florida Today interviewed several senior government officials involved in the evaluation, each members of key federal departments, including NASA. Those sources, however, requested anonymity to avoid upsetting the proceedings, or simply because it's their department's policy that they be quoted only as government officials.

Brevard County has hundreds of space station-related jobs, and the space shuttle program has been a linchpin of the regional economy.

Still, NASA managers "don't even know what they don't know," said one member of the task force. "Their check book-keeping skills are not what they could be. They don't have a good handle on how much things cost."

The task force's recommendations and NASA's willingness to embrace them could determine how much faith the White House and Congress are willing to invest in the agency's vision. The president's budget officials have said overspending on the space station could undermine manned spaceflight to the moon and beyond.

But the proceedings got off poorly a month ago in Houston. Auditors were shocked by a NASA briefing that called for a $2.5 billion bailout plan that would offset the overruns and allow for a larger-scale space station.

Instead of support, the presentation prompted a terse lecture from Thomas Young, chairman of the task force. He warned NASA managers to give up any hope of a bailout. The task force is expected to provide a draft of its recommendations to the NASA Advisory Council in two weeks. The report might be made public in a few months.

Taxpayers learned this summer that NASA faced a $4.8 billion cost overrun on the space station. To save money, the agency was forced to kill a habitation module and crew-escape vehicle, among other components. It also slashed science spending on the station by about 40 percent. Scientific experiments were a primary purpose for the program.

Officials have outlined several serious challenges facing the agency:

NASA and its contractors have kept more than 1,000 workers whose jobs and projects have been completed. Officials involved in the assessment said some, if not all of those workers could be forced out. Kennedy Space Center and local space station contractors employ several hundred station workers. Thousands of station workers are spread out over several locations nationwide.

"The job is done," one senior NASA official said. "It's not a layoff. We can't afford to carry them all. Our people have such a hard time (laying people off) that when they are finished building things, we actually try to find them things to do for the program. . . . That is how you overrun the program."

Some of those workers, however, may have what are termed "critical skills," which may offer them some protection, task force officials said. Task force officials have not identified a specific number or types of jobs that may be at risk.

NASA's cost estimates are so unreliable that auditors are struggling to identify any accounting standards upon which to base an assessment.

"There isn't any basis to do cost analysis because there isn't a crisp definition of the program," one senior government official said. "We're trying to get it back under control."

If NASA continues with "business as usual" taxpayers can expect the program to overrun by billions of dollars more.

"We are trying to deal with reality," one NASA official said. "We have a hell of a cost problem."

It's apparent to several people involved in the evaluation that some NASA leaders may no longer have jobs once evaluations are complete and NASA's Goldin reviews the findings.

"I see people having to leave," one senior NASA official said.

Those statements are more glaring, given the announcement Tuesday of the retirement of Joseph Rothenberg, NASA's associate administrator for spaceflight, who had oversight of the space station, shuttle and unmanned rocket launch services. Rothenberg, who will retire Dec. 15, was a central figure in the space station program during the past several years. He said, however, his retirement was unrelated to the station problems. He's attempted to retire twice before, but Goldin asked him to stay on each time.

Rothenberg said the creation of the task force and the accounting work it has done offered an opportunity to finally enjoy his grandchildren and the sailing season.

Goldin created the task force in late July after word of the overruns reached the public. Florida Today's investigation into the space station program in June revealed that mismanagement of the program led to the overruns.

Dozens of scientists, engineers, aerospace industry executives, military officials and cost analysis people were appointed to the task force and its numerous subcommittees. Goldin wanted to create a group whose recommendations would be beyond politics and reproach, he told Florida Today in July. The hope is the group will provide a clear direction for NASA.

As of today, the agency must find a way to live within an $8.3 billion spending limit through 2006, a limit NASA said it has already surpassed by almost $500 million. The agency has loosely identified cuts to cover the rest of the cost overrun.

Officially, NASA said it would be inappropriate to comment on the proceedings of the task force. Requests to interview Goldin or Rothenberg about the task force were denied.

"It's too premature, too early," said Dwayne Brown, a NASA spokesman.

Given the tight budget and previous overruns, task force members were stunned by one of the first briefings they received. NASA managers outlined how, with an additional $2.5 billion, the agency could build a living module and a crew-escape vehicle. Those two additions would enable NASA to expand the crew from three to six or seven people.

The increased crew size theoretically would enable NASA to conduct more science. The current crew can spend only about 20 hours a week on science. The rest of the time, they're keeping the station operating.

"That's when it hit the fan," one task force member said.

Rear Admiral Thomas Betterton, co-chair of the task force, said, "let's get it straight here: brief a program that is executable."

"I saw Tom Young flat-out say, 'It doesn't make any sense, gentlemen. You aren't getting it,' in a very polite way."

A senior NASA official in that same meeting said, "It was very painful and sometimes embarrassing. A lot of what was said was true."

Officials said there is "a lot of empathy" with NASA, and there is a desire by many to fund the program. "But they can't make a creditable cost argument. The issue is: We don't trust you with the money anymore. There is no faith," one government official said.

Still, most involved in the evaluation said they are trying to tread lightly. They acknowledge the space station itself is a marvel of engineering.

"It's an engineering culture," one task force member said. It's a culture of making the technology work with little focus on cost, he said.Another government official said, "NASA needs to spend as much on the cost-estimating side of the house as they do on engineering."

One negative assessment after another, however, is starting to wear NASA managers thin, one senior NASA official said. In the first few weeks of the review, some NASA managers started to "circle the wagons." They're growing frustrated with demands for more and more information and starting to feel that their accomplishments are under-appreciated.

"Many folks are still clinging to the hope they will get bailed out," one senior government official said. "The station, but also human spaceflight's future hangs in the balance - and the future of 'beyond-Earth-orbit' - unless this business is done differently. They won't have the credibility to be trusted with something like that from the administration or the Congress."