After multiple postponements, the launch of James Webb was finally able to materialize on December 25th. It took a hell of a lot of money to set it up, the budget initially planned having exploded.
After being launched on December 25, the James Webb Telescope has opened its sunshade. It has now arrived at the Lagrange L2 point where it will be able to collect data on the first galaxies and celestial bodies that have been difficult to observe until now by next summer. Still, the project took a long time to materialize. In the late 1990s, a fallibility study concluded that it would take $500 million to fund it. A vastly underestimated cost.
When Northrop Grumman took over in 2002, the announced investment was between 1 and 3.5 billion dollars. Four years later, we go to 4.5 billion dollars, the launch being postponed to 2013. In particular, a significant reduction in the budget of NASA during the Bush administration. Finally, the launch is scheduled for June 2014, the amount needed to set up JWST climbing to 4.964 billion dollars.
To read > This is the James Webb Telescope, a tiny dot in the middle of the stars
The James Webb Telescope was very expensive
In 2010, a senatorial commission commissioned a report that pointed to a slew of managerial concerns as well as poorly estimated costs. As a result, the space agency inflates the budget to $8.835 billion, with take-off postponed to 2018. pandemic… So many reasons that delayed the launch of the telescope on multiple occasions therefollowing, while increasing costs exponentially.
In the end, the bill for James Webb amounts to nearly 10 billion dollars. A colossal sum pointed out by many observers. To justify this massive investment, the observer’s exploration mission had better be crowned with success. Before heading out into deep space, the James Webb will however have to properly align his mirrors.
Source : ScreenRant
