Posted: Wed, Oct 17, 2001, 10:44 AM ET (1444 GMT)
An independent committee will recommend to NASA that it lay off up to 1,000 people working on the International Space Station program, Florida Today reported Wednesday. The ISS Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force, appointed by NASA to review the ISS program, has found that there are about 1,000 more employees of NASA and its contractors working on the program than needed, and many of them should be laid off to cut program costs. The committee also sharply criticized NASA for poor cost accounting of the program, which has run up several billion dollars in cost overruns which may increase yet again. One senior NASA official contacted by Florida Today believes the report could lead to the departure of several high-ranking NASA officials, although the report is not thought to be linked to the announcement Tuesday that associate administrator Joseph Rothenberg, responsible for ISS, will retire in December. The committee is expected to wrap up its study of the ISS program and provide NASA with a set of recommendations by the end of this month.

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•  Florida Today article