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WASHINGTON — Key House lawmakers are grumbling about NASA's announcement this week that it's pushing back by at least a year the testing of the heavy-lift rocket that's supposed to take astronauts to the moon and eventually to Mars.

"NASA and the contractors should not assume future delays and cost overruns will have no consequence," Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith warned at a House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing Thursday on NASA's exploration systems. "If delays continue, if costs rise and if foreseeable technical challenges arise, no one should assume the U.S. taxpayers or their representatives will tolerate this."

Smith chairs the panel.

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NASA announced Wednesday that the first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft together will not take place until at least Dec. 2019 and perhaps as late as June 2020. Earlier this year, NASA had been shooting for a launch window of the unmanned mission, known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) in late 2018 that would fly around the moon.

The launch was originally planned for 2017.

NASA officials blamed the latest delay on a variety of factors including problems with manufacturing and supplying Orion’s first European service module, tornado damage at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and "challenges related to building the core stage of the world’s most powerful rocket for the first time."

Earlier problems with welding of the rocket have been largely resolved but there are "ongoing issues associated with spacecraft command and control software," according to William Gerstenmaier NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations.

In addition, NASA has deployed staff to the U.S. plant making the high-pressure helium valves that will be used in the European module after production troubles arose.

Gerstenmaier told the committee the latest delays are not expected to have an effect on the timeline of a crewed test flight (EM-2) sometime in the first half of the next decade. Both test flights are precursors to an eventual trip to the moon and a mission to Mars with astronauts around 2033.

Gerstenmaier suggested earlier timelines on such a complicated program were too ambitious.

"We just need to be prepared as we build schedules going forward to know that these first-time things that we have never done before of a magnitude that's never been done before may need a little bit of extra time that first time through," he said.

Some lawmakers warned NASA against further delays.

In order to meet our nation’s space exploration goals, it will take focus, discipline and continuity of effort going forward, " said Texas GOP Rep. Brian Babin, who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Space. "Failure to do so could have dire consequences for the program, and there will be no one else to blame. The administration has demonstrated its renewed support. Congress consistently funds the program at healthy levels. It is time for NASA and the contractors to deliver."