Spaced out: So Congress is pissed at NASA — again. Seems this time it’s over timing. See, NASA is hurrying to finish the International Space Station by 2010, which also happens to be the year in which the space shuttle program ends and the aging vehicles are retired.

Only problem is, the shuttle’s replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, won’t be available until 2014. Doh!

“Do we have a techno Whoops?” Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., asked NASA Administrator Michael Griffin at a hearing Wednesday.

‘Do we have a techno Whoops?’

“On the face, it’s correct,” said Griffin, who then speculated that the station might be used by other countries that are partners with the United States in developing it. He also suggested commercial companies might be enticed to invest in developing private vehicles to transport cargo, and eventually people, to the space station during those four years.

According to GovExec.com, Griffin told the Senate committee that he has set aside $500 million in seed money fin NASA’s fiscal 2007 proposed budget of $16.8 billion so businesses can use the money to explore ways to get to the station. Griffin said some commercial proposals have been submitted and he expects to award contracts this summer.

But Mikulski noted that previous NASA efforts to encourage commercial interests had failed. She asked Griffin if there was any way NASA could speed up its development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and Crew Launch Vehicle.

Griffin replied that development could be accelerated, but only by devoting money not available in the current budget to the program. However, Griffin added that doing so might only reduce the gap to a year.

The savvy senators came up with an insightful conclusion following Griffin’s testimony — NASA needs more moolah! Perhaps a supplemental spending bill would do the trick ….