New NASA boss says budget problems manageable

WASHINGTON -- NASA's new administrator, Sean O'Keefe, said Tuesday the billions of dollars in cost overruns facing the space station program are manageable -- and not at the expense of everything else.

On the job for just five days, O'Keefe said he doesn't know yet whether some of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's field centers will need to be closed or whether the number of shuttle flights to the international space station will need to be reduced to save money.

"It's all on the table. I'm not wed to any solution," he said.

O'Keefe said the recent recommendations of an independent panel to scale back the international space station are "a good point of departure."

The task force suggested reducing the number of workers in the program, cutting back the number of shuttle flights to the orbiting outpost and, at least for now, keeping the space station crew at three rather than aiming for the seven originally envisioned.

A lifeboat and a habitation module needed to increase the number of astronauts on board are in limbo under White House orders.

"My fondest hope is that this will be a short-term kind of objective in the next 18 months to two years," O'Keefe said in his first meeting with reporters. He said he wants to "make sure we got it right" before moving forward with any expansion plans.

NASA does not know with certainty how much the space station ultimately will cost the 16 participating nations. The U.S. share alone has grown from an estimated $17.4 billion in 1993 to roughly $30 billion because of launch delays and unreasonable budget caps set by Washington, the task force reported in November.

NASA's overall budget currently stands at $14.8 billion.

O'Keefe said the scientific and technological objectives of the 3-year-old space station need to be defined more crisply. Although research is modest at present because of the limited crew size and higher-than-expected costs, he said he does not consider the orbiting outpost a flop.

"Let's focus on those issues which are highly manageable," O'Keefe said. "They're thorny. They're tough. They're going to be a challenge. All that. But they're highly manageable -- and not at the expense of so many other things that this organization is capable of."

O'Keefe was serving as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget when President Bush nominated him in November to replace retiring NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. O'Keefe reported to NASA Jan. 2.