Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) budgets, focusing on: (1) NASA efforts to reduce or eliminate the gap between its funding requirements and likely budgets; and (2) whether gaps remain between NASA program plans and its likely future budgets.

GAO found that: (1) recent events have reopened a gap between NASA program plans and its likely budgets; (2) NASA has not yet developed plans for closing this $5.3-billion gap projected for fiscal years 1996 through 2000; (3) NASA closed the gap GAO reported in 1992 primarily by changing and/or deleting some of its major programs; and (4) as a result of the changes, NASA increased the risks in several of its largest programs.