INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM As NASA sets its sights on Mars, moon, what about space station?

The half-completed station has become a steppingstone, experts say.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- President Bush's vision of astronauts on the moon and Mars dims the spotlight on the international space station, leaving its long-term future murky.
NASA will support the floating research lab for at least another dozen years. But beyond that, the level of U.S. support is unclear. Also unknown is whether its international partners will hang on if NASA drops out or whether the space station will be allowed to fall back to Earth like Skylab did in 1979.
"The real future of the international space station is still to be determined," said Michael Kostelnik, a NASA administrator who oversees the space shuttle and space station programs.
One thing is certain. With NASA's new space exploration goal, the half-completed space station goes from being the cornerstone of the U.S. space program to merely a steppingstone for further ambitions, NASA officials and space experts say.
"I don't think it diminishes the value of the space station, but it's just not the end goal of what we're doing anymore," said U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., a space advocate in Congress.
Bush's comments
In his speech last week, Bush said the space shuttle would be retired after construction on the space station is completed by 2010. All future U.S. research efforts on the station will be directed at studying the long-term effects of space travel on human biology -- research that will help in the exploration of the moon and Mars.
Between the retirement of the shuttles and the time NASA gets a next-generation spacecraft ready for human flying, as late as 2014, NASA will rely on the Russian Soyuz vehicle to get astronauts to the station. The next generation space vehicle, known as the crew exploration vehicle, also can be used for ferrying astronauts and scientists to the station after the shuttle is retired. But the new vehicle's primary focus will be exploration of the moon and Mars.
In the meantime, some former members of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel worry that too many resources will be diverted from the space station as NASA reshifts its focus.
NASA plans to divert $11 billion over five years from other programs toward the new exploration plans. About $1.7 billion of NASA's $15.3 billion budget request this year goes directly to the space station.
"It's hard to believe that all of this is going to be done with the same amount of money," said Shirley McCarty, a California-based aerospace consultant who used to chair the safety panel.
Added Art Zygielbaum, a former manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "They're not going to put the money in for the space shuttle or the space station."
Little concern shown
Officials with NASA's space station partners expressed little concern. The international partners -- Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan -- are meeting in March in Montreal where they expect to learn more about the future of the U.S. role with the station.
"I don't think we're going to unilaterally abrogate anything," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a former member of the board that investigated the space shuttle Columbia disaster. "If there are changes, they are changes that are mutually agreed upon."
Russian space officials are confident the United States will meet all its obligations.
"It would be unfeasible for them to drop this project," said Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko, a spokesman for the Russian Aerospace Agency. "Where else will they get such unique expertise in long-term flights?"
Frederic Nordlund, who heads the Washington office of the European Space Agency, said it was too early to tell if NASA's new ambitions would have much effect.
The Canadian Space Agency wants to know about changes in the station's research focus and plans for maintaining a presence on the station after the shuttles are retired in 2010, said Pierre Richard, senior vice president of the CSA.
Longtime focus
The international venture has been the focus of NASA's space program for the better part of a decade. NASA originally planned to operate the space station for at least 10 years after its completion in 2002. But the construction schedule has slipped past 2006, causing uncertainty even in NASA about when the United States' commitment ends.
James Kennedy, director of the Kennedy Space Center, said the commitment "on paper" is until 2016. But Kostelnik said it ranges from 2015 to 2020.
It would be hard for the other international partners to continue with the space station if NASA withdrew its support, said Richard of the Canadian Space Agency.
"I think it would be premature to think we're going to pull away from the space station any time soon," Kostelnik said.