Managers at NASA replanning the James Webb Space Telescope program after an independent cost analysis found it over budget and behind schedule have concluded it will cost about $8.7 billion to finish the telescope in time for a launch in 2018 and operate it at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point for five years.
An agency spokesman said Monday the revised figure — an increase of $3.6 billion over NASA’s most recent life-cycle-cost estimate for the big infrared space observatory — includes all development, launch operations and science costs.
Details of how the agency will pay the cost will be covered in the fiscal 2013 NASA budget request now in preparation, the spokesman says.
With the NASA budget being gutted by the Obama administration, and the US staying in Afghanistan until at least 2024, the 3.6 billion dollar cost overrun of the Webb Space Telescope may prove unsolvable. And that would be a real tragedy. Let's hope that won't be the case. To read the rest of the article, click here.