https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/03/government-warns-additional-james-webb-delays-exceeding-cost-cap/


GAO report – James Webb launch date “likely unachievable”:

According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report submitted to Congress Wednesday, 28 February, the James Webb Space Telescope is in danger of slipping even further beyond its current March-June 2019 launch window due to ongoing issues with integration and testing operations and prime contractor optimism.

The significance of the finding, according to the GAO, is that the integration and testing period is “the phase in development where problems are most likely to be found and schedules tend to slip.”

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Better safe than sorry. There won't be any first aid mission like with Hubble.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

To me the JWST is another example of Big Science with Big Costs. Look to what other scientists have done with a radio telescope the size of a table. I dared to move the thread from SETI Science to Science (non SETI) as it was suggested from other users. Four Einstein@home volunteers share the merit of finding a radio quiet gamma-ray pulsar from the Fermi Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope as is detailed on the Einstein@home home page.
Tullio

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I'm sure Elon Musk could build one 3x as big 1/3 of the cost and still have it in orbit before this lot decide what to do..

I think that the JWST should be launched at Kourou by an Ariane 5 ESA launcher.
Tullio

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The launch is delayed to March 2020. Hopefully.
Tullio

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I'm not surprised about another delay. Hopefully this will be the final one. That sun shield issue sounds very tricky.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I'm not surprised about another delay. Hopefully this will be the final one. That sun shield issue sounds very tricky.

+1

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rOZZ
Music
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Bummer:-((

The Independent Review Board (IRB) established by NASA to assess progress on its James Webb Space Telescope has unanimously recommended that development on the world’s premier science observatory should continue; NASA has established a new launch date for Webb of March 30, 2021.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-completes-webb-telescope-review-commits-to-launch-in-early-2021

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That is one big expensive complicated piece of origami, ;~)

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

In perusing the IRB paper, it sure looks like there's been some failure of supervision. The implication is made that supervisors have signed off on things that they didn't really check properly. Kind of reminds me of being handed a contract, and asked to initial pages, while not thoroughly reading the content. In the case of something like the James Webb telescope, with virtually zero room for error, that's unacceptable.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

unacceptable. Who is in charge who is the chief scientist ?

It will fall apart from old age at this rate..!

It will fall apart from old age at this rate..!

It does make me wonder, and I haven't seen anything about this, but what about the on-board computers? With such extensive delays, they are getting out-dated.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

My personal opinion is let a private company buy it "fix it" and let Space X launch it at a much lower cost..

At this point, I think it's out of a private company's price range.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

NASA has established a new launch date for Webb of March 30, 2021.

I hope this will be the final date. I have been looking forward to the day of launch like a kid. Makes me think of the nuclear fusion that is posponed over and over again..

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rOZZ
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Pictures

It's easy to criticize when you are on the outside looking in; I will do so anyway.

There is very poor reporting as what the problems are and why it will take so long to fix it. In the meantime a lot of people will be drawing nice fat salaries--apparently without any recriminations for the unacceptable delays and postponements. It may be time to clean house at NASA as they appear to be in danger of becoming part of the complacent civil servant army which has no performance review, work ethic nor profit motive.

Perhaps NASA should; or has, become just a contracting agency to the private sector.

IIRC one of the biggest problems is the funding was cut to near zero one year. People have to have food on the table. Not everyone could wait around a year to be brought back on the project.

There seem to be two big issues left. The first seems to be some sort of engineering and building screw up at NGAS on the propulsion system. That isn't being talked about. If they have identified it they will fix it.
The second seems to be the sun shield. Never flown before. Seems like they tried something and it didn't test okay. Rinse and Repeat. Does not give good confidence all the problems are out.

It seems to be an issue to unfold and unfurl things in space. Skylab, ISS, Light Sail, there is a list of failures of those kinds of operations. We don't have zero g test facility for those.

It seems to be an issue to unfold and unfurl things in space. Skylab, ISS, Light Sail, there is a list of failures of those kinds of operations. We don't have zero g test facility for those.

Things certainly behave differently in zero-g, and unlike astronaut training you can't try unfolding things like the Sun shield underwater

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?