NASA is again postponing the launch of its space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope , with a total delay of 7 months.
The latest delays have been largely due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19. Last announced, plans for a launch in March 2021were now scheduled to fly on October 31, 2021.
The Government Accountability Office ( GAO ) had already predicted this delay. NASA announced the new date after an extensive review to see if the March 2021 timeline was actually feasible. The agency attributes the roughly three-month delay to social distancing and other precautions needed to keep people safe from COVID-19.
"A lot of the delay, of course, is due to people not working, right? Either because they can't touch the materials or because of the reduction in personnel who would be working shifts," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, during a press conference.
However, the coronavirus is not the only cause. The two extra months added to the schedule are due to technical challenges faced by the project's prime contractor, Northrop Grumman, during telescope assembly and testing.
Northrop Grumman had already faced several technical problems during the development of the spacecraft, such as loose components and random cracks in the thin layer of sunshield, which is designed to protect the observatory from the intense heat of the sun. NASA then added an additional two months to the schedule in case other unforeseen problems arose.
The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, has struggled with delays throughout history . When it was first planned in the 1990s, it was expected to cost between $1 billion and $3.5 billion, with a launch date sometime between 2007 and 2011, according to the GAO. Since then, the costs have ballooned and the launch date has been repeatedly delayed.
In 2011, Congress reworked the entire project, setting a cap of $8 billion for the telescope’s development, with a launch in 2018. But guess what. In 2018, NASA delayed the project again, saying it had spent $8.8 billion and that the entire mission would cost $9.66 billion, including the cost of operating the telescope in space. That year, it set a launch date of March 2021.
The space agency expects to stay within that budget, even with the new delay.
“Based on current projections, we expect the remaining work to be completed within the new program, without the need for additional funds,” said Gregory Robinson, program manager.
NASA says it has already spoken to Arianespace, the company that will launch the JWST, about the delay. The company claims that the rocket's planned launch, Ariane 5, will be ready to take the vehicle into space next Halloween.
"We're not expecting to get away from October 31st. We have great confidence in that," Robinson said.
The James Webb Space Telescope is intended to be the most powerful space observatory ever built, capable of looking back in time to 13.8 billion years ago, when the universe first formed. It features a massive gold-plated mirror, 6.5 meters in diameter, that will gather light from the far reaches of the universe.
