The James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST for short) has been making headlines lately, and for all the wrong reasons.  Recently, the House Appropriations Committee explicitly recommended the cancellation of the project, due to massive cost overruns.  It was revealed that the final cost of the telescope will be $8.7 billion - that covers the telescope's development, launch, and operation for five years in Earth orbit.  That is nearly four billion dollars more that was originally slated for the project.  That's a lot of money.  So what is the JWST, and why should we pay so much for it?

Artist's rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope (NASA).

The JWST, which was initially planned in 1996, is the heir apparent to the world's current most dazzling space telescope, the Hubble.  Named after a former NASA administrator, JWST promises to be the top of the line space telescope for the 21st century.  It will have four state-of-the-art instruments that will operate mostly in the infrared range, with some limited capability in the visible range of the spectrum.  It's primary mirror will be 6.5 meters in diameter; large enough to see back to nearly the beginning of the universe.  It will be the most powerful and sophisticated space telescope ever to fly.  That is, if it ever gets off the ground.

The problem comes in the crippling cost overruns the project has incurred over the years.  Despite the cooperation of the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and Northrup Grumman, NASA is still bearing the brunt of the cost.  Several new technologies have been invented specifically for the JWST, including ultra-lightweight beryllium optics, and a cryogenic cooler that will keep the IR detectors as cold as 7K.  However, with a launch date that is still 7 years off, it's making congress antsy that they may be throwing money away.

JWST might get a reprieve, however.  Despite Congress wanting the project canceled, money may be moved around in NASA itself, to further fund the project.  Of course, that might mean scaling down some other missions, or putting them off until after JWST is launched.  JWST is what NASA calls a flagship mission, one that will bring not only science, but prestige, back to the agency, and it is likely to get priority over smaller missions.

Cost overruns aside, JWST needs to be launched.  The Hubble Space Telescope has been an amazing machine that has brought the edges of the universe to the coffee tables of people's homes.  It has conducted, and continues to conduct, amazing science, but it is decades old, and its days are numbered.  Another telescope, on the grand scale of Hubble, is needed if we are going to further our understanding of the origins of our universe.  Let's bite the bullet, fund JWST, and continue to push the envelope of human knowledge.

Read more about the James Webb Space Telescope.