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At a two-part hearing discussing the future of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine proposed reducing the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope's (WFIRST) budget by about a third in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to help fund the cost-overrun JWST:
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said July 25 that, in order to address the delays and cost overruns with the James Webb Space Telescope, the agency may seek to slow down development of another flagship astrophysics mission.
Testifying before the House Science Committee in the first half of a two-part hearing on JWST, Bridenstine suggested that slowing down work on the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) until after JWST is launched could be a way to deal with JWST's increased cost while maintaining a "balanced portfolio" of large and small astrophysics programs.
"The idea of WFIRST presumed that JWST would be on orbit and delivering science," he said. "So it is my recommendation that we move forward with WFIRST after we move forward with JWST."
"It is true we can do some development now. I'm not saying that we need to shut down WFIRST, and we shouldn't do it," he added. "What I'm saying is there's opportunity here."
The second part of the hearing will involve questioning of Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush on the 26th.
See also: NASA's next great space telescope is stuck on Earth after screwy errors
Previously: WFIRST Space Observatory Could be Scaled Back Due to Costs
Trump Administration Budget Proposal Would Cancel WFIRST
House Spending Bill Offers NASA More Money Than the Agency or Administration Wanted
Launch of James Webb Space Telescope Delayed Again, This Time to March 2021, Cost at $9.66 Billion
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday July 28 2018, @12:26AM
They don't call JWST "the telescope that ate astronomy" [nature.com] for nothing.
JWST is too big to fail, too important to fail. Not only is it far behind schedule and over budget, but the little things that could go wrong with it total in the hundreds [spaceref.com]. And it's not designed for repair (even though you'd think some university somewhere would go ahead and design an all-purpose repair robot given the high stakes).
The good thing about this mess is that it's going to force a rethink of future space telescopes. Big and cheap launched on BFR, repairable by robot spacecraft, connected with human activities like the LOP-G for easy human repair, modular with multiple launches, swarms of telescopes working together, telescopes built in space, etc. Plenty of fresh ideas out there for making sure we don't suffer another $10 billion telescope (unless we choose to).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]