NASA: James Webb Space Telescope Costs Becoming Astronomical

[unhappycamper]

NASA: James Webb Space Telescope Costs Becoming Astronomical
SETH BORENSTEIN | 11/10/10 06:47 PM | AP

WASHINGTON — The cost of NASA's replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope is giving new meaning to the word astronomical, growing another $1.5 billion, according to a new internal NASA study released Wednesday.

NASA's explanation: We're better rocket scientists than accountants. Management and others didn't notice that key costs for the James Webb Space Telescope weren't included during a major program review in July 2008, officials said.

The study says in the best case scenario it will now cost about $6.5 billion to launch and run the powerful, new telescope. And that can happen only if NASA adds an extra $500 million in the next two years over current budget plans. If the agency can't get the extra money from Congress, it will ultimately cost even more and take longer to launch the telescope.

Before now, the cost of the telescope had already ballooned from $3.5 billion to $5 billion.

NASA officials said they had not done a good job of figuring out the confirmation cost for the massive telescope. The report said the budget in 2008 "understated the real requirements" and managers didn't realize how inadequate it was.



unhappycamper comment: $5 billion is about what a Virginia-class submarine costs. We already have seven of these bad boys.

I find it interesting that NASA is all aghast at the cost and the DoD could care less about the cost.

[n2doc]

1. DOD is an old hand at this.

I doubt that anything they build at the DOD is brought in under cost.

It is a shame, the repubs will see this as a great excuse to can something that will bring more understanding to mankind than a thousand subs.

[ixion]

2. NASA is a whippin' favorite, while no one questions the massive sums spend by the DoD

I would rather see the money go to NASA for R&D.

[notesdev]

3. Shut it down

and fire everyone with responsibility for budget in the entire management chain.

If we don't put our foot down somewhere this crap will continue ad infinitum.

At a time like this we can't afford to throw extra billions at luxury programs due to the malfeasance and incompetence of agency management.

[gtar100]

4. Are you referring to NASA or the DoD?

Because what you say applies in multitudes more to the Pentagon and its handling of money than it does to NASA.

[notesdev]

5. Anything and everything

that works on the kind of budgeting that assumes a massive cost overrun will precede a massive hike in the allocated budget. It's that kind of warped thinking that makes our budget problems as intractable as they are.