After extending cost and schedule milestones for the beleaguered  James Webb Space Telescope in January 2011, the program is back on track and will launch by its revised target date in 2018, said JWST Program Director Rick Howard, who spoke Dec. 6 before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

The program made significant progress in fiscal 2011, following an exhaustive review, which resulted in "a robust baseline that NASA is confident we can achieve," said Howard. In fiscal 2012 Congress appropriated an additional $156 million to NASA budget request and capped the programs overall development cost at $8 billion--$3.6 billion more than the program's initial cost estimate.

"We made your already difficult task of funding important programs in these distressed fiscal times even more difficult due to our poor past performance on JWST. We are thus even more determined to restore your confidence in NASA by delivering a successful JWST on the new cost and schedule baseline," said Howard.

JWST is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope that will replace the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA has $530 million left for program funding through the end of fiscal 2012, which Howard said will primarily go toward the development of the spacecraft, sunshield, and the integration and testing of all the combined elements of the observatory.

"The integration and test activity is the most complicated endeavor that we have ahead of us," said Howard, because the JWST system cannot be tested in the actual operation conditions.

Committee Chairman Ralph Hall (R-Texas) told Howard that it's difficult to justify a program that could require another infusion of over $1 billion.

"Some have argued that we should cut our losses and move on. Others have suggested that we're rewarding bad behavior by continuing to invest in the mission. In my view NASA's latest replan for the James Webb Space Telescope is the agency's last opportunity to hold this program together."

For more:
- go to the hearing page (includes prepared testimony and archived webcast)

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