NASA says it plans to spend about a half-billion dollars to refill the pension fund of a contractor who supplied workers to the U.S. space shuttle program.

United Space Alliance, which supplied thousands of workers to the soon-to-be-shuttered shuttle program, has a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration that states the government agency will cover the company's pension costs "to the extent they are otherwise allowable, [allocatable] and reasonable," The New York Times reported Tuesday.

NASA officials say they interpret the phrase to include the cost of terminating its pension plans outside of bankruptcy.

United Space Alliance says it won't have a revenue stream to keep its pension plan afloat once the space shuttle program ends, the Times said. The company wants to end its family of pension plans covering 11,000 workers and retirees, and exist as a leaner concern to compete for other contracts.

The pension fund has about half the amount needed. The president's 2012 budget proposal includes $547.9 million for NASA to provide the rest -- roughly 3 percent of the agency's total budget.

"We know that it's NASA's obligation to fund this, and NASA will do so," agency spokesman Michael Curie said.

Spokeswoman Tracy Yates said United Space Alliance hasn't "seen or heard anything to date that indicates that NASA will not receive funding for this obligation."

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