WASHINGTON NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin has formed an independent team of scientific, engineering and financial experts to evaluate the management and budgetary issues facing the international space station program, the agency announced July 31.

Dubbed the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force, the panel will take a look at recent cost growth on the program and assess the fidelity of NASAs current cost estimating methodologies. The group also will identify space station program areas at risk for cost growth and develop inflation-risk mitigation strategies.

The review panel, which will be led by former Martin Marietta President Thomas Young and includes two Nobel Prize winners, is expected to report its findings to the NASA Advisory Council by Nov. 1, NASA said.

"The financial management of the international space station needs an overhaul, but were going to do it in a way that doesnt sacrifice safety," Goldin said in a prepared statement.

NASA earlier this year acknowledged cost growth on the international space station program that could exceed $3 billion over the next four years. The program is capped at $25 billion.

In the wake of the revelation, the White House scaled back work on several key elements of the program, including an emergency evacuation module that would enable the station to house permanent crews of six people. Currently a single Russian Soyuz capsule, which can only accommodate three people, is used for that purpose.