JWST price tag now put at over $8bn

Nasa says it will now cost $8.7bn to launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 and operate it for five years.

The assessment - some $2bn higher than previous estimates - has emerged from documents sent to the US Congress.

James Webb is regarded as the successor to Hubble and will carry technologies capable of detecting the light from the first stars to shine in the Universe.

That actually seems reasonable to me. At the cost of 1 month of a war in Afghanistan of Iraq we can have the latest greatest space telescope. Now if the penny pinchers would unclench their cheeks it can be done. Seriously, unless the $8 billions is connected to killing people we hear screams of how expensive it is. $8 billion is the cost of 8 B2 bombers. I call it a deal if they just stop flying 8 B2's

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

$8 billion is the cost of 8 B2 bombers. I call it a deal if they just stop flying 8 B2's

If The B2s did not exist, The 8 Billion would not exist.

And if The 8 Billion did exist, there would be 1000s of competing interests for it.

Why would the 8 Billion be used for a telescope?

And if The 8 Billion was used for a Telescope, people would be saying, "if These Expensive Telescopes Didn't Exist we could buy......".

Yep, that $3000 toilet seat-if it did not exist-could feed 10 People in Appalachia for a month(substitute some African Country if you like and get 1000 people).

Fly me To The Moon, let us Dance Among The Stars. Let's see what Life is Like on Jupiter and Mars. In Other Words-Kiss Me Baby. In Other Words-Hold my hand.

LaDaDaDaDaDa La La Lalalalala.

I am Null and Void and a Darwin Barnacle

If The B2s did not exist, The 8 Billion would not exist.

I'm always forced to laugh at this type of logic. It's as if the writer believes these planes drop gold bars or endless supplies of food instead of death.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I would like to bid on that job

bureaucratic bs that keeps things from being accomplished. Small minded congressmen that can't see the money to be made for all the lobbyists tossing more money their way

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Hmm, I thought that telescope would be up in the air by 2014. What happend? :)

Hmm, I thought that telescope would be up in the air by 2014. What happend? :)

Politics in the USA.

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Hmm, I thought that telescope would be up in the air by 2014. What happend? :)

Politics in the USA.

Thats shame beyond words. I was so looking forward to seeing pictures taken by the telescope. Now I have to wait 4! more years! :/

Well hopefully Chinas engagement to space science will fuel the west's fire for it.

It's a very advanced telescope, to be put in high orbit, not serviceable by any manned mission. It must work with no error.So the testing is very important, not to repeat the story of Hubble which went to orbit with a flawed optical system.
Tullio

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I guess Lockheed Martin corp is building that or at least supplying majority parts of that next human brain marvel. The thing is those defense contractors all the time extending deadlines plus worstly add the cost. For the majorly short public budget and bottomless traditional budget swallower LM and others I cannot imagine where the public fate heads.

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Mandtugai!