More delay and cost for NASA’s next-generation space telescope

MARCIA DUNN
Florida, US | June 27

NASA’s next-generation space telescope has been delayed yet again at a staggering cost of $1 million a day.

For the third time in less than a year, the space agency announced a lengthy postponement Wednesday for the James Webb Space Telescope . The observatory will now fly no earlier than 2021; until last fall, it was on the books for a 2018 launch.

The telescope’s overall cost is now expected to reach nearly $10 billion. Development cost alone will exceed the $8 billion cap set by Congress by more than $800 million, and require reauthorization.

An independent review board cites worker error and embedded hardware problems for much of the escalating costs and delays. In an acoustic test of the telescope earlier this year in California by prime contractor Northrop Grumman, dozens of loose fasteners — some 70 pieces in all — came off. A few pieces are still missing and could well be inside the observatory.

In another mishap, an improper solvent was used to clean spacecraft propulsion valves. No one bothered checking to see whether the cleaner might damage the equipment, said review board chairman Tom Young.

NASA repeatedly was over-optimistic in the work schedule, especially given the complexities and unique features of the Webb telescope, Young said. Its sunshield, the size of a tennis court once unfurled in space, is needed to keep the infrared telescope cold and is a major risk area, he noted.

Despite the many problems, the review board urges that the project continue given its “compelling” scientific potential and national importance, according to Young.

Webb — considered a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope — is meant to peer farther into space and deeper into time than ever before. It will operate from a point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, unreachable by astronauts like the low-orbiting Hubble — launched in 1990 with a misshapen mirror — was