NASA Administrator Charles Bolden appeared before the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee and came under pointed grilling on a number of NASA projects, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

'News to me' that the James Webb Space Telescope is in trouble: Bolden

According to the Houston Chronicle, the hearing covered a variety of subjects, including NASA's plan to snag and then explore an asteroid, the commercial crew program, the Orion and Space Launch System, and NASA's education programs. When asked whether sequestration would impact any NASA programs, Bolden replied that he foresaw no missed deadlines due to the cuts imposed by it. Then subcommittee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, pounced with a recent General Accounting Office report on a number of NASA projects that cast doubt on the schedule and budget estimates for the troubled James Webb Space Telescope. Bolden replied that it was news to him. His information is that things are proceeding nominally.

GAO report on the James Webb Space Telescope

The GAO noted in its chapter on the JWST that two of its instruments are 11 months late. There are concerns that the JWST is above its allotted mass, causing NASA engineers to scramble to bring that mass down. While NASA has expressed 66 percent confidence that the space telescope will still make its allotted $8.7 billion budget and its scheduled launch date of 2018, the GAO does not share that confidence. NASA has not followed best practices in estimating the cost and schedule of the JWST, not identifying key factors of cost that include workforce size.

James Webb Space Telescope has had budget and schedule problems

According to the Washington Post, the JWST has been plagued by budget and schedule problems for years. It has ballooned from a $2.4 billion dollar project that would launch in 2014 to an $8.7 billion project that is scheduled to launch in 2018. The project sparked a fight between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate in 2011 with House Republicans attempting to cancel the JWST and Senate Democrats fighting to maintain funding. A compromise was finally reached that required NASA to cut funding in other areas to maintain the space telescope project.

James Webb Space Telescope the successor to Hubble

The JWST is the most ambitious project of its kind, according to NASA, designed to observe the universe in the visual to infrared range. When launched it will deploy in an orbit about 1 million miles from Earth, using a mirror 21.3 feet in diameter and an sun shade the size of a tennis court. According to Space.com, one of the main selling points for the space telescope will be its ability to not only find alien planets but to examine their atmosphere, breaking down their molecular structure. This is crucial in determining which planets are most like Earth.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo, The Last Moonwalker, and Dreams of Barry's Stepfather. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Visit link:

NASA's Bolden Tussles with House Panel Over James Webb Space Telescope