Congress Committee Grids NASA and Northrop Grumman on the Delays of the James Webb Space Telescope

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology concluded two days of hearings aimed at understanding how James Webb NASA's flagship telescope project could have gone from a planned launch in 2007 with a budget of $ 500 million to a launch in 2021 with a budget of $ 9.6 billion.

Most interviewees reaffirmed their support for the project. mission and the actions recommended by a recent independent review. But tensions arose during the testimony of Northrop Grumman's CEO, Wes Bush, in which he refused to divulge his company's earnings aloud with MP Lamar Smith (R-Texas), offering documents for the record. do you know what was the profit of the company last year? "Smith says.

The James Webb Space Telescope promises to be Hubble's incredible successor. He will be sitting at L2, a gravitationally stable point at a million miles from Earth where the telescope can maintain the same position in relation to our planet and the Sun. Its budget has steadily increased and its launch date has been postponed several times as the project objectives became more ambitious and unexpected problems arose. tests, with much of the human error, pushed the planned launch date from May 2020 to March 2021. The project will require an additional $ 800 million.

an overoptimistic project, as we detail here.But Smith blamed NASA's contractor, Northrop Grumman, for responsibility for some of the most discussed human errors. case, the company used the wrong solvent to clean the valves in the telescope thrusters, destroying some equipment. He said that the lack of individual security checks led to problems and errors that did not appear before the test. A recent independent review committee, led by former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Tom Young, recently released a report containing a series of recommendations aimed at investigating other errors. potential to perform tests and complete the project. said that Northrop Grumman would adhere to the recommendations of the independent review. In addition, he stated that all payments already received and to be received in the future for the contract would be placed in a deposit account and would be returned to his company only if the mission was successful.

But when Smith asked what was the Northrop Grumman's 2017 profit to the nearest billion, Bush would not say (that's $ 2,015 billion). When MP Smith asked if Northrop Grumman would pay the $ 800 million that the project should exceed, Bush said the company would not do it.

Gizmodo reached out to Northrop Grumman to comment and update the post when we hear.

NASA retains some of the responsibility for the project's change plan. "We can blame the entrepreneur, but it is our job to have a successful mission," NASA director Jim Bridenstine told the audience

. desire to show the world what American science can do. Many have been sensitive to how science has changed – astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets since the project kickoff, and the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy have only deepened

. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) asked if there were possible sanctions for Northrop Grumman and suggested that these delays be taken into account when NASA evaluates future contracts. Others have asked that future project plans include better stops so that errors are noted before the integrated tests.

NASA is also struggling with the effect of these budget overruns. At yesterday 's hearing, NASA director Bridenstine said that there have been discussions, but not decisions, about how JWST will "cannibalize". other missions. He mentioned the postponement of the future WFIRST telescope as a possibility, but said the necessary funding would not come from human space efforts.

There is still a lot of work to do before what will hopefully be a launch in March 2021. Bridenstine mentioned 300 potential points of failure that will require tests and an optimistic schedule. And since the telescope is going to be on L2, rather orbiting Earth, you can not easily go back and fix it if something goes wrong, as Hubble needed a quick fix after its own deployment .

Yet, despite the enormous cost and discouraging delays, it will be an incredible telescope, like all the astronomers Gizmodo talked about the mission. He will be able to explore the extremes of the Universe and perhaps discover things that we have not even thought to question. He just needs to take off.