NASA administrator Charles Bolden, in opening a mock-up exhibit of the James Webb Space Telescope at the Baltimore Science Center, stated the project in on track for a 2018 launch. The JWST is still in fiscal and political trouble, however.
A timeline of the project's history shows the perils and promise of big, multibillion-dollar NASA projects.
1993: Committee appointed to study space astronomy missions for the 21st Century
1996: Committee recommends the building of a new space telescope as a successor to the Hubble, larger and with the capacity to see into infrared. Teams are selected for further feasibility studies.
1997: Teams chosen from the Goddard Space Flight Center, TRW and Ball Aerospace, to fine-tune the proposed space telescope's technical and financial requirements.
1999: "Phase A" mission studies are begun to make a preliminary analysis of the design, and cost.
2002: "Phase B" design review initiated. The proposed telescope is renamed the "James Webb Space Telescope" in honor of the NASA administrator who oversaw the early portion of the Apollo program.
2004: Construction begins on the JWST's instruments and 18 segmented mirror.
2005: The ESA Ariane V rocket chosen to launch the JWST.
Oct. 28, 2010: An Independent Comprehensive Review Panel concludes the JWST has been plagued with budgeting and program management problems that has caused the project to increase in cost and slip in its scheduled launch date. The panel concluded the project would cost $6.5 billion and would launch no earlier than 2015.This is up from a cost estimate of $5.1 billion and a slip from a launch date of 2013.
2011: Costs increase to $7.5 billion with a launch date of 2018. Another $1.2 billion is estimated for five years of support of the JWST after it is launched.
July 6, 2011: The House Appropriations Committee calls for cancellation of the JWST, zeroing out funding. The Planetary Society urges restoration, placing the blame on the cuts on the Space Launch System, NASA's planned heavy lift launcher.
Sept 13, 2011: The Senate Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee restores funding for the JWST, allocating $530 million.
Oct. 10, 2011: Lou Friedman, former executive director of the Planetary Society, accuses the Obama administration of shortchanging space science projects such as the JWST. He advocates delaying or cancelling the Space Launch System in order to pay for the space telescope's development costs.
Oct. 14, 2011: NASA administrator Charles Bolden states no other single project will be made to suffer because of the JWST's costs overruns. Cuts would come from "the institutional and science sectors of NASA." Costs for the JWST would also be redistributed over a number of NASA divisions.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. 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.
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