NASA
THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE...CANCELLED? So I just recently read an article stating that the House Appropriations Committee is proposing to cancel the Hubble Space Telescope’s replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), from NASA's 2012 budget. The JWST was originally supposed to launch around 2013-'14, but due to budget overruns and poor management, the spacecraft will probably still be on the ground in 2018.
According to the House’s proposed NASA budget for next year, however, $10 million would be given to the space agency to resume production of Plutonium 238...the nuclear isotope used to power robotic spacecraft ranging from Voyager 2 and Cassini to New Horizons and the Curiosity Mars rover. Upon reading this bit of news, my reaction to JWST’s potential budget axing is muted.
If canceling JWST means that more outer planet missions (such as the once-proposed Argo mission to Neptune) can be developed, assuming Pu-238 production is restarted (and restarted ASAP), then so be it. However, since the Department of Energy apparently isn’t getting a budget increase for 2012 as well, and the DoE must collaborate with NASA to restart the production of Pu-238, then this is all a futile effort.
Which means...the 2012 budget for NASA sucks really bad. Save JWST! I hope this entry wasn't too all over the place for y’all.
NASA / APL & JPL / McParno
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