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WFIRST, proposed for cancellation, is approved for development
NASA has approved a major astrophysics mission to go into the next phase of its development even as the administration seeks once again to cancel it.
NASA announced March 2 that the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) has passed a review known as Key Decision Point C, which confirms development plans for the mission and allows it to move into full-scale hardware production and testing.
That milestone is when the agency also sets a baseline cost and schedule commitment for the mission. NASA said in its statement about the review that the mission would cost $3.2 billion through its launch, a cost cap previously set by NASA. The cost when including five years of science operations, as well as a coronagraph instrument deemed a technology demonstration by NASA, increases to $3.934 billion.
However, NASA did not announce a launch date for the mission because its fiscal year 2021 budget request proposes to cancel WFIRST. "The Administration is not ready to proceed with another multi-billion-dollar telescope until Webb has been successfully launched and deployed," NASA said in its statement, a reference to the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled for launch in March 2021. NASA used the same statement in its 2021 budget request to explain why it sought no funding for the mission.
Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).
Previously:
WFIRST Space Observatory Could be Scaled Back Due to Costs
Trump Administration Budget Proposal Would Cancel WFIRST
NASA Gets Money it Didn't Ask for to Fund Second SLS Mobile Launcher; WFIRST Mission Receives Funds
Launch of James Webb Space Telescope Delayed Again, This Time to March 2021, Cost at $9.66 Billion
NASA Administrator at House Hearing: WFIRST Could be Delayed to Help Pay for JWST
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 06 2020, @02:31AM (4 children)
You can't delay the things that really matter on "what if something goes wrong in the future." Politicians come and go, even if WFIRST gets cancelled, there's a pretty good chance it would get re-funded in 2021.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday March 06 2020, @02:46AM (1 child)
Refunded.. Is that before or after the engineers have been reassigned?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 06 2020, @03:01PM
Things move pretty slowly in Houston, if the program goes cold for a couple of years then it is screwed, but the better managers can find a way to hang on to their good engineers for a while (i.e. pay them from somewhere else...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 06 2020, @02:52AM
To be fair, Congress has already rebuffed most of the administration's NASA/space priorities. Previous attempts to defund things were slapped down, and the Artemis program [wikipedia.org] hasn't gotten funded yet.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by khallow on Friday March 06 2020, @04:29AM
Well, if that happens, hopefully it'll get defunded in 2022. After all, one of the things that goes wrong in the future is that bad ideas take the oxygen away from the good ideas. Keep in mind the "is not ready to proceed with another multi-billion-dollar telescope until Webb has been successfully launched and deployed" issue. WFIRST has probably displaced several good ideas already just like the JWST.