Setbacks in the final testing and assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may delay its launch date once more. This is the latest in a series of delays going back at least a decade.
JWST is NASA鈥檚 planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Its huge mirror is made of golden hexagonal segments that will let it look at the atmospheres of planets beyond our solar system. It will also be able to peer deep into the early universe to see the formation of the first stars and galaxies.
The project originated in 1996 as the Next Generation Space Telescope, which was slated to cost $0.5 billion and launch in 2007. Over the following two decades, the scope and budget ballooned and by last year, the launch date had been pushed back to June 2019. Now, that seems likely to be pushed back again, but it鈥檚 not clear how long the delay will be.
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On 28 February, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that, 鈥淕iven remaining integration and test work ahead 鈥� the phase in development where problems are most likely to be found and schedules tend to slip鈥� additional launch delays are likely.鈥� The report also stated that the project seemed likely to exceed its $8.8 billion budget.
Among the issues highlighted by the GAO report are malfunctions in parts of the telescope鈥檚 sunshield, and leaks in half of the 16 valves in the spacecraft鈥檚 thrusters. The report also says that Northrup Grumman, the Virginia company contracted to build JWST, has teams now working 24 hours a day to build and test the telescope.
Even so, with less than two months of extra time built into the schedule, it seems unlikely that these and the other inevitable unexpected problems will be fixed before next July.
Read more: NASA may lose a major space telescope and space station funding
