President Bush's National Security Council will begin determining a new space policy after a NASA-appointed board finishes investigating the demise of the shuttle Columbia, probably several months from now, White House officials said yesterday.

White House officials said they have taken soundings on Capitol Hill and elsewhere and, for now, will allow the NASA-appointed board, which consists of military officers and other federal officials, to proceed with its investigation without competition from a separate presidential panel. White House aides said that, by giving way to the NASA panel, they are deferring to a mechanism established after the Challenger investigation.

Congressional Democrats said they are unlikely to press Bush to establish a presidential commission because some of the blame for the shuttle program's problems could be placed on NASA budget cuts made during the Clinton presidency. But aides said that if White House vulnerabilities turned up in the NASA panel investigation or in hearings planned by the Senate Commerce Committee, Democrats might jump on them.