NASA seeks leeway to pay for storm damage

NASA's Mike Griffin asked Congress for flexibility to shift money in its budget to deal with problems raised by last year's hurricanes.

The space agency spent money from its space shuttle and International Space Station accounts to pay for emergency operations and repairs of facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Griffin now wants to reimburse those programs for those expenses.

Hurricane Katrina, in particular, caused extensive damage at the New Orleans factory where workers build shuttle external tanks. The storm also damaged Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where space shuttle main engines are tested. The tank facility especially is still struggling to recover.

NASA's Katrina-related bills: $484 million. The Congress has provided some money for the NASA damage, but a large amount has come from other programs, Griffin said.

A year earlier, another series of hurricanes also did serious damage to buildings at the Kennedy Space Center. More than $100 million to pay for those repairs was included in a hurricane relief bill and did not come out of the space agency's regular budget.