Florida ? The chairman of the U.S. House science committee said Thursday that NASA is headed for “a train wreck” if the space agency isn’t better funded to finish building the international space station and develop the next-generation spacecraft.

The White House has cut NASA’s five-year budget plan by almost $2.26 billion in the three years since President Bush announced the “Vision for Space Exploration” plan to develop new spacecraft to go back to the moon and then to Mars, said U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn. Gordon, chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, spoke at a hearing in Washington on NASA’s 2008 budget request.

“I’m afraid that NASA is headed for a train wreck if things don’t change,” Gordon told NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

Lawmakers on the House committee also said the five-year plan in the 2008 budget proposal shortchanges the space station by $924 million and doesn’t fund an upgrade in the Deep Space communications network.