WASHINGTON -- NASA, taking steps to meet the Bush administration's 2002 budget, is dramatically scaling back its ambitions for the International Space Station in order to rein in a program the White House fears will exceed its budget by $4 billion over the next five years.

Winds of Change for the Space Program

CLICK HERE for analysis of what President Bush"s budget proposal means for NASA.

How will NASA and the ISS make do with these budget constraints? Engineers are already looking for solutions .

NASA space station chief Michael Hawes said in a conference call with reporters Feb. 28 that the U.S. space agency will scale back or stop work altogether on its habitation module, crew return vehicle (CRV) and propulsion module. That will allow NASA to concentrate the remainder of the stations $25 billion budget on finishing a less ambitious version of the orbital outpost.

The habitation module and CRV are needed before the station accommodate its full complement of seven crew members. Hawes said once NASA solves its pressing budget problems, it will look for ways to add these elements back to the program as "enhancements." In other words, those elements are no longer part of the baseline plan for the space station.

The space station cost overruns will be a major topic when Congress begins examining U.S. President George W. Bushs 2002 budget request, congressional staff members said Feb. 28.

[uplink]

An outline for that plan, dubbed "A Blueprint for New Beginnings," provides $14.5 billion for NASA a 2-percent increase over 2001.

The budget outline did not break down numbers for specific programs. A more detailed budget proposal will be released in early April.

Under the emerging plan, NASA would consider its hardware contribution to the International Space Station finished once the module known as Node 2 is delivered and attached.

Node 2, which was scheduled to launch in November 2003 prior to the shake-up, will serve as the attachment point for the European Columbus module and the Japanese experiment module.

Hawes said Bushs medicine "represents a strong commitment to fly off the hardware that we have built and are testing. It reflects a commitment to fly our international partners modules. And it asks NASA to solve within its budget resources any enhancements to that configuration that will help us increase the crew size and add more capability."

A source with congressional appropriations committee said he doubted NASA truly has a handle yet on exactly how much the space station overruns will be.

Hawes expressed doubts about the accuracy of Bushs $4 billion estimate of future space station cost growth, saying it represents a worst case scenario. Additional analysis could bring that estimate down significantly, he said.