NASA taking heat on Earth

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA is taking more heat for space station spending as it gears up for another major phase of high-flying construction work.

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off today with the newest piece of the international space station, a 44-foot girder. The elaborate, wired-up beam will form the foundation for a framework that ultimately will stretch longer than a football field and support a dazzling collection of solar wings and radiators.

Under new anti-terrorism precautions, the 5:13 p.m. launch time was kept secret until late Wednesday afternoon, 24 hours in advance. Up until then, NASA had said only that the launch would take place between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

There was a 40 percent chance that rain or thunderstorms could force a delay.

Cost of parts issue

While technical successes continue to mount in orbit, the latest flap on Earth is over how NASA buys spare parts for the space station. A report by NASA's inspector general office says the space agency has no assurance it is paying a fair price for these parts.

NASA spent $334 million on station spare parts through 2000. But because the space agency did not negotiate for separate prices and did not adequately keep track of what it paid in the past, it had no way of knowing whether it paid too much, according to the inspector general's report, released Tuesday.

In addition, primary contractor Boeing omitted certain associated costs and, as a result, NASA ended up understating in its annual financial statements the value of space station parts by $39 million from 1995 through 2000, the report said.

Unless its practices change, NASA may not be able to get a good deal for $608 million in future spare parts, the inspector general's office concluded. A nickel-hydrogen battery for collecting solar power, alone, costs $3 million.

NASA had already been under attack for billions of dollars in projected cost overruns in its space station program, which last year resulted in a White House-ordered scaling back of the project. The space agency could not estimate how much the station would cost when completed, and was assailed in Congress for its bookkeeping.

Space station program manager Tommy Holloway said three teams are reviewing what the outpost will cost over the next several years and that a credible estimate should be available by the end of the summer.