Webb Telescope Delayed, Costs Rise to $8 Billion

It's hardly the most opportune time to announce a huge cost overrun for a major science facility. But last week NASA told Congress that its proposed successor to Hubble, the 6.5-meter James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will require an additional $1.5 billion and another delay.

NASA delivered the bad budget news--first reported this week by the BBC and Nature—on 16 August, says space agency spokesperson Trent Perrotto. Two outside sources say the silver lining for astronomers is that NASA hopes to share the fiscal burden equally between astrophysics and other branches of the $18-billion agency rather than pummeling its science programs.

The new $8 billion price tag doesn't include operating costs of about $780 million for the far-seeing infrared observatory's first 5 years in space. Under the revised NASA plan, Webb would not only cost 23% more but would launch in the fall of 2018, 2 years later than the date the agency had suggested only months ago.

NASA is withholding details of its new cost estimates because the so-called "replan" is under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Those details may not be available until the president submits his 2013 budget request to Congress in February. But leaders in the astronomy community are hoping that the White House will endorse both the higher number and the cost-sharing plan. "To damage science for such a small contribution from the rest of the agency would not be very responsible," says astronomer and Webb proponent Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz.