Money problems will likely force NASA to abandon its ambitious internal goal of having a new moon spaceship ready by 2013, a top space agency official told The Associated Press Wednesday.

The agency should still be able to meet its public commitment to test launch astronauts in the first Orion capsule by March 2015, the official said, unless national budget stalemates continue.

But the agency’s own hurry-up plan to get the job done even earlier - with a first crew launch by 2013 - will “very likely” be changed during meetings this week in Houston, said Doug Cooke, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration.

“We’re probably going to have to move our target date,” Cooke said in a phone interview. An actual astronaut moon landing is still set for 2020. Orion initially will just orbit Earth before