NASA has once again delayed the launch of its powerful new space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, primarily due to disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently scheduled to fly in March 2021, the massive telescope is slated to launch on October 31, 2021.
The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, had already predicted this delay. NASA proposed the new date after doing a thorough review to see if the time of March 2021 was really possible. The agency attributes nearly three months of delay to social distancing and other precautions that had to be taken to keep people safe from the coronavirus. “Much of the impact, of course, comes from people who are not at work, right?” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator at NASA’s Scientific Mission Directorate, said during a press conference. “Not touching the hardware or having a small number of people available to take turns.”
However, the coronavirus is not the only culprit. An additional two months were added to the schedule thanks to technical challenges experienced by prime contractor Northrop Grumman as he tied the telescope and tested. Northrop Grumman has already dealt with numerous technical issues during the spacecraft’s development, such as washers and bolts that become loose during testing, as well as accidental breaks in the vehicle’s slim sun visor, which is designed to protect the observatory from intense heat. from Sun. Then NASA added an additional two months as a scheduling margin, in case other unknown issues arise from now until launch.
The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, has been plagued with delays throughout its history. The observatory, first conceived in the 1990s, is projected to cost between $ 1 billion and $ 3.5 billion, with a launch date somewhere between 2007 and 2011, according to the Government Accountability Office. . Since then, the cost of the project has skyrocketed and the release date has been repeatedly delayed.
In 2011, Congress re-planned the entire project, creating a $ 8 billion limit on telescope development, with a launch in 2018. But in 2018, NASA delayed the project once again, claiming that $ 8.8 billion was needed for development, and that the entire mission would cost $ 9.66 billion, including the cost of operating the telescope in space. That year, NASA set the launch date for March 2021.
NASA does not expect to exceed that budget further, even with the new delay. “Based on current projections, the program hopes to complete the remaining work within the new schedule, without requiring additional funds,” said Gregory Robinson, program director for James Webb, during a press call, “where we use the program’s existing funds to stay. ” within this $ 8.8 billion development cost limit. “
NASA says it has already spoken to Arianespace, the company that will launch JWST, about the delay. The company claims that the planned rocket trip, the Ariane 5, will be ready to take the vehicle into space next Halloween. NASA is also firm for the date of October 31. “We don’t expect to go beyond October 31,” said Robinson. “We have great confidence in that.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is intended to be the most powerful space observatory ever built when it launched, capable of looking back at the time when the Universe emerged 13.8 billion years ago. The telescope sports a huge gold-plated mirror, measuring 21 feet, or 6.5 meters wide, that will collect light from the far reaches of the cosmos.
