![]() ![]() ![]() During vibration testing, which simulates launch conditions for the spacecraft, screws came loose and fell out, along with washers, requiring a series of unanticipated interventions. In the time since then, the technologies that needed to be developed were developed, but there were setbacks along the way. Other early tests, like vibration testing, did not go according to plan. This marked the telescope’s final cryogenic testing, and it ensured the observatory is ready for the frigid, airless environment of space. after having completed its cryogenic testing on Nov. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sits inside Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. ![]() There would be an extra ~$1.5 billion required to complete the telescope due to the delay and many extra years, and approximately $800 million ($0.8 billion) was rolled into the cost to support the 5 years of operation that James Webb’s primary mission required. As the people who were working on it found other jobs, it became clear that completing James Webb would become far more expensive and would experience initial delays. Of course, those additional funds were not provided, and that caused a large number of layoffs, as the personnel needed to complete the job - with the knowledge and experience they had gained from working on it thus far - were not kept on. The panel was unambiguous in stating that this was the earliest and least expensive launch plan for James Webb, and that any delay in funding would result in a more expensive mission. They concluded that James Webb could be launched in late 2015, for a total cost of $6.5 billion, but only if an extra $250 million were provided in both 20. So how did we wind up with nearly a $9 billion mission? It’s important to look at the findings of that Independent Comprehensive Review Panel from 2010. The gold is visually striking, but there's very little of it: about 4 grams, total. From the zero-gravity environment of space, these individual segments must form a perfect single plane to within a 20 nanometer tolerance. The 18 segments of James Webb in the laboratory, after completed assembly and all coatings have been. At the time, the project components were 85% complete, while approximately $3.5 billion (of the initial $5.1 billion estimate) had already been spent. When new, unexpected issues were discovered, the project simply didn't have the resources on hand to properly address them. In 2010, it became clear that the launch date (which was 2014 at the time) was not feasible, and both the internal critical design review and an external Independent Comprehensive Review Panel concluded that the primary culprit was a lack of sufficient near-term reserves. The initial cost estimate for this version of Webb (in its current configuration) was only $5.1 billion, and there was initial mismanagement early on as milestones were missed and insufficient action was taken. In many ways, James Webb feels like it’s been an unlucky project in a number of ways, as some of its woes were completely unforeseeable, but others have been expensive lessons learned by NASA’s astrophysics division. Whenever you do something novel for the very first time, it becomes very difficult to predict what sort of obstacles you’re going to encounter. ![]()
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