Why Raiding NASA’s Space Launch System’s Funding to Pay for the James Webb Space Telescope is a Bad Idea

COMMENTARY | Space News has a remarkable idea to save the James Webb Space Telescope. The aerospace industry periodical suggests that NASA stretch out the development of the Space Launch System by a year to accommodate the JW telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope started at a cost of $5.1 billion and scheduled to launch in 2013. It is now scheduled to be launched in 2018 and costs $8.7 billion. Even though the reasons for the cost overruns and the schedule slippages go beyond just mismanagement by the NASA bureaucracy, the James Webb is now in danger of cancellation.

The proposal to stretch out the Space Launch System, crucial for plans to send astronauts beyond Earth orbit to the moon and other destinations, is an ill-advised attempt at predatory budgeting. It would increase the cost of developing the SLS while not addressing the reasons that the JWST has gotten into trouble.

Predatory budgeting is an old problem at NASA. Congress does not appropriate enough money for NASA to conduct all of the projects that it is mandated to do, especially when one has to cover the cost of unexpected technical problems that are inherent in such undertakings. Thus supporters of one project, in this case the space telescope, propose raiding the funding from another, in this case the SLS.

If NASA, or more likely the congressional appropriators, were to follow the advice of the Space News editorial, there is no guarantee that the space telescope can be saved. There are seven years between now and the launch date for things to crop up. At the same time, underfunding the SLS will disrupt a program that has finally gotten on track, which NASA insiders believe will be ready to finally take astronaut explorers beyond low Earth orbit before this decade is out. The schedule will slip to the right. The costs will balloon. The carrion cries of space exploration opponents to just cancel the whole program will increase in volume and tempo.

There is another idea, perhaps outside the box that Washington lives in. If we want to do both space exploration and space-based astronomy, then why not pay for it? Stop/start/slow down/speed up/change direction funding tends to waste money in the long run. If the federal government were to commit to a project, whether it is the JWST or the SLS, pay what it takes to bring it to a conclusion, then not only will money will be saved in the long run, but the country will get from its space program what it properly should give — science and exploration.

Source: Identify JWST’s Bill Payers, Space News, Oct 11, 2011

Why Does NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Cost so Much? Mark R. Whittington, Sept 11, 2011

NASA’s Next Lunar Voyage May Occur ‘Before This Decade is Out’, Mark R. Whittington, Oct 1, 2011


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *