NASA Delays Launch of James Webb Space Telescope Again — This Time to 2021

The IRB traced the 29-month delay (from a targeted launch date of October 2018 to March 2021) to five factors: human error, "embedded problems," excessive optimism, systems complexity, and a lack of experience in key areas, such as sunshade development.

https://www.space.com/41016-nasa-delays-james-webb-space-telescope-2021.html



*Sigh*....

This may be old news to some but I've been out of town away from the news for the past few weeks....

I understand why they delayed it, unlike Hubble this is a telescope that has to be absolutely 100% perfect, there is no way to repair it if anything at all goes wrong. If James Webb has a Hubble type disastrous first year then it would be a $10 billion project down the toilet. No ability to put glasses on James Webb like we did Hubble.

But this news stings. I was really optimistic that 2019 would be the year it would finally launch. I've been waiting for this thing to get up there and begin it's research for over a decade. But now we wait.....again.

This is the "big launch" of the next 20 years or so. We aren't sending anything else into space this significant until the 2030s so I've been patiently waiting for the results of all of this hard work and money.

But as the experts say, we'd much rather discover ANY problems here on the ground than when it's too far out of our reach to fix. The only thing worse than delaying James Webb again would be to launch it then figure out something has gone wrong and knowing there is absolutely nothing at all we can do about it.

 

I agree. I think the fact that NASA is public funded and has to answer to Congress is part of the reason why this is taking so long. I hate that aspect of NASA, they have to answer to Congress and the will of President's who change their priorities every time the administration changes. Scientists have to answer to politicians about what they are doing with the money they are being given. Not a good combo.

NASA just needs to be given a budget and left alone to do as they feel is necessary. Let NASA determine what is priority, not Congress.

But I can't really complain too much. James Webb has cost A LOT more than they ever thought it would and Congress is sort of still letting them put more money into the project even though it's costing twice as much and taking over 10 years longer than they said it would.

I worry about how the public will react to James Webb though. Astronomy enthusiasts will be pleased with it im sure as will scientists obviously, but the general public may not be too happy about what they get to see once James Webb finally becomes operational. I read plenty of science forums online and I always see people with expectations of this telescope snapping HD pictures of Exoplanets that look like Hubble pictures of Mars or something and they are going to be surely disappointed.....

I don't believe the general public really understands what James Webb is designed to do and I hope they don't get too upset when they realize that this $10 billion taxpayer telescope can't show them what they think it can...