How the Webb Space Telescope Got So Expensive

First time accepted submitter IICV writes "Ethan Siegel of Starts with a Bang has done some research on how and why the James Webb Space Telescope's price tag ballooned. Quoting: 'Something wasn't adding up. How could the telescope be more than three-quarters complete after $3.5 billion, but require more than double that amount to finish it? Also, how did the launch date get bumped by three years, to 2018? And how did 6.5 billion become a disastrous $8.7 billion so quickly? So I did a little digging around, and perhaps a little investigative reporting as well, and got ahold of a Webb Project Scientist who's also a member of the Webb Science Working Group.'" Whether or not you buy the argument that the money's well-spent (at $5 billion or $8 billion, or either side of these), even the work in progress is beautiful.

Synopsis

[Lexx Greatrex]

Thank you for a very nice piece of investigative journalism. I summarize my understanding of it as follows:

The JWST budget did not include provision for technical and other problems that are expected to happen on large speculative projects such as this.
Oversight failed to act on warnings that budgets were being exceeded and schedules were drifting.
When oversight finally pulled the plug, parts of the project were near completion (implying that a 2014 launch date may have been possible).
Attempts to salvage any of the billions invested will incur significant additional costs due to loss of staff and the dissipation of knowledge, pushing any possible launch date close to 2020 and a budget four times the size of the original estimate.
Congress is shifting the blame entirely to NASA; seemingly avoiding responsibility for its part in appropriating public money without either due diligence or proper oversight.

Sound like business as usual.

Re:It's a deal compared to other things.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they weren't in the budget during the Bush years; during the Obama term they have been budgeted. Of course, that bit of honesty has helped the GOP scream about the huge deficit and claim Obama grew it more than he actually did. Just goes to show you what honesty gets you in politics, lol.

Re:Synopsis

[JoshuaZ]

That is by and large a fair summary but there's an important part of TFA that also comes up: A large part of the added cost could have been avoided if Congress had just given an additional 250 million for a launch date in 2015. If that had occurred this would be only a few hundred million dollars over budget.

Re:It's a deal compared to other things.

[Anonymous Coward]

The last time a President was honest with us, it was Jimmy Carter giving his "crisis of confidence" speech. Look where that got him.