By MARCIA DUNN=
AP Aerospace Writer=
           CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) _ NASA's space station warranty runs
out this week, and the agency is no closer to finishing the project
than it was when the first two pieces rocketed into orbit in 1998.
           After almost 500 days aloft, the international space station has
no occupants, no experiments, no firm assembly plans. Instead, it's
a barren two-roomer with bad batteries, noisy equipment and poor
ventilation.
           Blame the Russians: They were supposed to launch a service
module that would assume control of the station and provide living
quarters just five months after the initial components soared, but
they have been stymied by insufficient funds and malfunctioning
rockets.
           As a result, the all-important third component, the Zvezda
service module, will not fly before July and astronauts and
cosmonauts will not move in until October _ at the earliest.
           In the meantime, the warranty for what's in orbit is expiring.
And that has space shuttle astronauts flying to the rescue next
month.
           The 496-day guarantee for Russian-built electronic equipment
runs out Thursday, according to figures provided last year by
then-station manager Frank Culbertson, an astronaut who will
command a future station crew.
           NASA expects the space station to keep running normally until
astronauts arrive in mid- to late April with new batteries, fans,
air filters, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. The astronauts
were supposed to wait until the service module was in place, but
with the warranty expiring and batteries failing, NASA moved up the
visit.
           ``Would you like it to fall out of the sky?'' asks NASA
Administrator Daniel Goldin. ``I mean, we're going to go up and
keep it in good repair and we'll be ready for the service module
when it comes.''
           Space station chief Michael Hawes expects the upcoming repairs
by astronauts to extend the certified lifetime of the orbiting
Zarya control module to the end of this year.
           Neither Hawes nor program manager Tommy Holloway is overly
concerned.
           The design lifetime of parts is ``mostly paper analysis kind of
stuff,'' Holloway says. ``As you know with your automobile, it may
break a day after you drive it out of the showroom and it may run
for 100,000 miles.''
           Built by Russians with U.S. funds, Zarya was launched from
Kazakstan on Nov. 20, 1998. That's when the 496-day warranty began.
NASA sent up a connecting chamber called Unity two weeks later.
           Since then, the space station has circled Earth nearly 8,000
times. Shuttle crews have been inside twice to drop off supplies
and make repairs.
           The main trouble has been the batteries. Six are on board to
provide power and have been faltering one by one.
           In addition, a crane attached to the outside of the station by
spacewalking astronauts last spring is not locked down properly.
The next shuttle crew will go out to secure it. The crew also will
take numerous air samples; the last visitors suffered headaches and
nausea, supposedly because the air ventilation was disturbed by
maintenance work.
           Zarya, Russian for Sunrise, was not designed to fly so long by
itself, says Hawes. It was modeled after Russian lab modules that
were self-sustaining units until they docked with space station
Mir's nerve center.
           ``We've always known that Zarya was a less capable module from a
lifetime standpoint,'' Hawes says. ``But we have done quite a bit
of work ... to try to understand where the issues are component by
component, and that is what's really defined our mission for this
upcoming flight.''
           The problem is that for years, the Russians lacked the money to
complete Zvezda, Russian for Star. Now that it's done, the module
fails to meet NASA safety standards for noise, self-sustaining
equipment and shielding against space junk.
           Then Russia's Proton rockets began failing. That's the type of
rocket needed to launch the heavy Zvezda.
           ``Right now, as I see it, the only thing standing in the way of
launching the service module is a demonstration flight from the
Proton,'' says NASA's boss, Goldin.
           He'd like to see four or five successful Proton launches before
the Zvezda service module flies. Just in case, NASA is building its
own control module, which could be ready to go by December.
           Goldin and others are quick to point out that NASA has had its
share of space station problems, most notably in computer software.
Boeing, the prime contractor, projects cost overruns of close to $1
billion, according to NASA's latest inspector general report.
           The most embarrassing debacle occurred last month. With so many
stockpiled parts, workers accidentally threw out two oxygen and
nitrogen tanks at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala. The tanks were worth $750,000.
           Russian delays, meanwhile, have cost NASA as much as $3 billion.
Ironically, NASA and its foreign partners had invited Russia into
the international space station program in 1993 in hopes of saving
time and money.
           Given all this, should NASA have waited to launch the first two
space station components when it was obvious the service module was
in deep trouble?
           NASA officials are loath to second-guess that decision. But
former astronaut Jerry Linenger, who spent nearly five months on
Mir in 1997, says it was a political maneuver.
           ``Kind of you do it, then everyone has to come up with more
money or you've got things floating up there doing nothing,''
Linenger says.
           NASA clearly anticipated delays, especially as Russia's
political and economic problems worsened. But no one guessed the
Russians would take this long to launch the service module. A
496-day warranty seemed plenty.
           ``That's a long way off,'' Culbertson said with a shrug last
year.
           He's no longer shrugging.

On the Net: NASA's human spaceflight:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/index-m.html