NASA Delays Launch of James Webb Space Telescope to 2020

NASA Delays Launch of James Webb Space Telescope Until 2020

NASA has delayed the launch of its new James Webb Space Telescope until no earlier than May 2020 due to the need for more testing.

Credit: NASA

NASA has delayed the launch of its next great space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, until no earlier than May 2020 — nearly a year later than planned — due to the need for more testing of the telescope's intricate systems, the space agency announced today (March 27).

The launch delay is not the only disappointing news for the space telescope. Its $8.8 billion price tag could rise, too, NASA officials told reporters today.

"All the observatory's flight hardware is now complete; however, the issues brought to light with the spacecraft element are prompting us to take the necessary steps to refocus our efforts on the completion of this ambitious and complex observatory," NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. [Building the James Webb Space Telescope: A Photo Tour]

Billed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the new space telescope is an infrared observatory designed to peer deep into the universe, study the earliest stars and galaxies, and seek out strange new planets around distant stars. NASA built the space telescope in two parts: the telescope itself and a huge, complicated sun shield that will protect the observatory's sensitive instruments from the sun.

NASA originally hoped to launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 but delayed it until 2019 last September due to delays in the observatory's assembly.

The potential for more issues arose in February, when a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that the telescope faced a high probability of more delays that could push the telescope beyond its budget cap. In 2001, Congress assigned the telescope a cost cap of $8 billion prior to launch.

When the James Webb Space Telescope finally flies, it will be the largest space observatory ever launched. The observatory has seven times the light-collecting power of Hubble. It will operate at ultracool temperatures and be able to detect infrared light from the universe's earliest stars and galaxies, as well as analyze the atmospheres of distant planets as they pass in front of their stars.

The assembled instruments and mirrors recently completed testing in an enormous cryovacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the telescope was transported to California for final assembly with its tennis-court-size sun shield and spacecraft bus.

This story will be updated shortly with more details from a NASA teleconference on the James Webb Space Telescope launch delay.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Let's block ads! (Why?)