The House Committee on Science , Space , and Technology has concluded two days of hearings focused on trying to understand how the James Webb Space Telescope — NASA ’s flagship scope project — could have gone from a 2007 design launch with a $ 500 million budget to a 2021 launch with a $ 9.6 billion budget .
The treatment was mostly subdue , with many of the questioners reaffirming their reinforcement for the mission as well as for the action recommended by a recentindependent review . But latent hostility rise during the testimony of Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush , in which he refused to disclose his company ’s 2017 profit aloud with Congressman Lamar Smith ( R - Texas ) , offering documentation for the record instead .
“ How could a CEO not recognise what the profits of the company was last year ? ” Smith said .
The James Webb Space Telescope promises to be Hubble ’s incredible successor . It will posture at L2 , a gravitationally unchanging point a million miles from Earth where the scope can maintain the same position relative to our planet and the Sun . Its budget has repeatedly billow and its launching date has been promote back several prison term as the project ’s goal became more ambitious and unexpected issues change by reversal up . Most lately , testing setbacks , with a respectable portion of human fault , have pushed the projected launch day of the month from May 2020 to March 2021 . The project will require another $ 800 million dollars .
Much of the budget overruns come from overoptimism related to the projection , as wedetail here . But Smith laid the incrimination for some of the most - discussed of these human errors on NASA ’s contractor , Northrop Grumman . In one typeface , the company used the wrong answer to make clean valve in the telescope ’s thrusters , destroying some equipment . He said that the lack of individual guard checks lead to problems and errors that did n’t appear until testing . A late Independent Review Board , led by former managing director of NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center Tom Young , of late put out a account with a series of recommendations for the squad to look for other likely errors , perform testing , and complete the project .
Bush say that Northrop Grumman would adhere to the recommendations in the independent review . to boot , he said that all payment already received and to be receive in the future for the contract would be place into a hold accounting and would only be released to his company if the mission is successful .
But when Smith asked what Northrop Grumman ’s 2017 net profit was to the nearest billion dollars , Bush would not say ( it ’s $ 2.015 billion ) . When Congressman Smith asked if Northrop Grumman would pay the $ 800 million that the projection is expected to go over , Bush said the company would not .
Gizmodo achieve out to Northrop Grumman for comment and will update the post when we hear back .
NASA maintain some of the responsibility for the project ’s shift architectural plan . “ We can fault the contractile organ , but it is on us to have commission success , ” NASA Director Jim Bridenstine said at the audition .
Despite these challenges , members of Congress are clearly still excited about the flagship mission , with several utter their eagerness to show the world what American scientific discipline can do . Many were sympathetic to just how much scientific discipline has changed — stargazer have come up thousands of exoplanets since the project ’s offset , and the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy have only deepened .
Still , several remained angry about the project . Congressman Dana Rohrabacher ( R - California ) asked about whether there were potential penalties for Northrop Grumman and suggested these delays be taken into account when NASA is evaluate future contracts . Others asked that next projection plans let in good stopgaps so that wrongdoing are notice before integrated testing .
NASA is also deal with the effect of these budgetary overrun . At the audition yesterday , NASA Director Bridenstine said there have been word , but not decision , as to how JWST will “ cannibalize ” other missions . He mentioneddelaying the upcoming WFIRST telescopeas a possibleness , but said that the need funding would not total from human spaceflight endeavors .
There ’s still plenitude of work to do before what will hopefully be a March 2021 launching . Bridenstine refer 300 potential points of nonstarter that will require examination and an optimistic schedule . And since the telescope is going to be at L2 , rather orbiting close to Earth , you ca n’t easily go back to fix it if something goes untimely , the way Hubble needed a quick jam after its own deployment .
Still , despite the huge price and discouraging delays , it ’s give-up the ghost to be an incredible telescope , as per every astronomer Gizmodo has spoken to about the foreign mission . It will be capable to explore the Universe ’s extremes and perhaps let on thing we have n’t even thought to question yet . It just demand to get off the ground .
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