Katherine Rueff's blog

posted by: krueff

What’s worse than building the next generation’s telescope, launching it into space, and then finding out it needs glasses (*cough* Hubble *cough*)?

How about not EVEN getting to put it into space at all….?

“Caption: Fully functional, 1/6th scale model of the JWST mirror in optics testbed.” Credit: NASA

The House Appropriations Committee announced this week to cut more than $430 million in funding to NASA’s Science programs and will terminate the funding for the James Webb Space Telescope.

The chief of NASA went to Congress yesterday to try and save the JWST:
http://www.space.com/12263-nasa-chief-congress-james-webb-space-telescope.html

How does this affect you?:
Well, the James Webb will be the “space telescope of the future“.  With it, we will be able to see areas and events in space that no human has ever (or could otherwise) see.
Oh, and WHO is the “Senior Project Scientist” for the JWST?  Remember this guy?

So that hits close to home.  It’s upsetting to know all of the great work these scientists have personally dedicated and then Congress having the choice to throw all of that away.
This would be a huge loss to the entire science community, and especially in the US, if the JWST isn’t allowed the chance to come to fruition.

To learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope please visit:  http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.