JWST exceeds cost cap, launch has been postponed to 2021

The concept of the artist of the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: James Vaughan / SpaceFlight Insider

the James Webb Space Telescope, in development for 22 years, is now The JWST, known for its many delays and cost overruns, appears to be in the final stages of its flight to the top of an Ariane 5 rocket coming from Kourou, French Guiana.

A report published by the Independent Review Board (IRB) of NASA, which was adopted by the space agency itself, unanimously recommended that the mission be authorized to progress.

"Webb should continue to build on its extraordinary scientific potential and its vital role in maintaining US leadership in astronomy and astrophysics," said Tom Young, chair of the review panel. "Ensuring that every element of Webb works properly before it is in space is essential to its success."

Delays and cost overruns for the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: Grant Wembly via Twitter

Relying on scientific reasons not to cancel the project, the representatives continued to defend the JWST despite the fact that it became a monetary pit and a black eye for the US Space Agency – as well as # 39, a target of cancellation.

"The more we learn about our universe, the more we realize that Webb is essential to answering questions we did not even know how to ask when the spacecraft was designed," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's Associate Administrator. "Webb is ready to answer these questions, and is worth waiting for." The IRB's valuable recommendations support our efforts to ensure the mission's success, and we expect spectacular scientific advances from the highest scientific priority of the IRB. The NASA. "

Originally known as Next Generation Space TelescopeThe estimated costs of the mission were estimated at about $ 500 million, once Northrop Grumman became the prime contractor, the cost of the mission increased to $ 825 million. When it launches at the most recent date, the telescope will have cost some $ 9.6 billion.

A post made on Twitter by Grant Trembly, an astrophysicist from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics provided a graph detailing program delays and rising costs (left).

In 2010, the scientific journal, Nature describes the JWST as the "telescope that ate astronomy". July 6, 2011, the US House of Representatives Credit Committee for Trade, Justice and Science made an effort to cancel the JWST. At the time, $ 3 billion had already been spent and about 75% of the spacecraft equipment had been produced. The committee noted that the project exceeded multibillion dollar budgets and that it was undermined by mismanagement. The JWST has been allowed to sue with a budget capped at $ 8 billion that NASA has recognized as a violation.

Despite long delays and huge costs, NASA Public Affairs Officer Dwayne Brown opened Wednesday's conference call with the statement that "Webb is worth the wait!" This theme was recurrent throughout the June 27th teleconference.

Human errors, lack of experience, complexity, excessive optimism were city as examples of why the spacecraft has been repeatedly delayed. In the last decade alone, the mission is expected to be launched in 2018 (this date was given in 2011 and the cost of this delay alone is estimated at $ 1 billion), 2020 and now 2121. In fact, the JWST has not seen less than 11 launch times. NASA representatives said SpaceFlight Insider that, despite the 25 years since the program's conception, the loss of qualified personnel was not a problem.

The launch period from 2018 to 2021 has been described as being caused by five factors: 1). human errors 2). inherent problems 3.) Lack of experience in areas such as Sunshield 4 of JWST. excessive optimism 5). complexity of systems

Some of the problems caused by human error included the use of an incorrect solvent in the cleaning of the propulsion valves, errors in the test leads that caused the application of & # 39; Excessive voltage to transducers and fasteners for improper installation of the sun visor. It was noted by the Associated Press' Marcia Dunn that during a particular test, the one involving the fasteners that some 70 pieces were lost – with two of them still remaining in the telescope.

Dunn's badessment of this test was confirmed by Young. He also noted that all the lost pieces, except four, had been discovered and that two of them could not "uniquely say that they had been". (Discovered – and, therefore, are probably still in the telescope somewhere)

"Do not get me wrong, I'm not happy sitting here sharing this story, we never want to do that, we always want to talk about the successes we have and if you look at our mission inventory, you see how many times we deliver missions below costs and deadlines, "said Zurbuchen in response to Dunn's question" We are very excited about this … we are part of this team that created this problem, of course, Northrop (Grumman) is one of them, but we are watching how it works, we are also taking responsibility as we move forward and that is the only way we are going to bring on the finish line, together. "

It was mentioned during the teleconference on Wednesday that these problems could have been avoided with relatively simple solutions and caused a delay of about a year and a half and some 600 million dollars.

NASA has not only violated the cost ceiling but also the deadline. Congress will now have to allow this increase in the next round of appropriations.

"The spending ceiling we expected from Congress was $ 8 billion for development, which includes the development of hardware integration, test, launch and six months of commissioning, so the $ 8 billion for all this, "Young said. "With the delay in launching and recommendations from the IRB, this will add an additional $ 800 million to development costs.

With JWST's ever-growing expense leaving questions as to what the actual amount of the program was, SpaceFlight Insider asked NASA to better understand this amount and received the following answer:

NASA has completed a replication that determined a total life cycle cost to support the March 2021 launch date of about $ 9.66 billion; this cost includes integration and testing, launch, commissioning and five years of operation and scientific costs. The estimate of development costs (cost per commissioning) of $ 8 billion would increase to $ 8.8 billion.

While other NASA initiatives have been canceled after billions of dollars had already been spent on them (like the Constellation and ARM programs), the agency does not seem to be reducing its losses on JWST anytime soon . This amount does not include expenditures paid by NASA partners on the project, European and Canadian space agencies.

Video courtesy of NASA

Tagged: Ariane 5 James Webb Space Telescope Independent Review Panel NASA Northrop Grumman Head Stories

Jason Rhian

Jason Rhian has spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for sales outlets such as: Aviation Week and Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.