Some times of government inefficiency are so impressive that they catch our attention. Enter the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Twenty times over budget, 15 years arrears and now overdue, the JWST is a catchy example of how government agencies can waste taxpayer money. It also reminds Americans how hard it is to be too careful.

Astronomers identified the need for a new area tool to upgrade the aging Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. Initially, the allocation was estimated at just $500 million, but a primary revaluation postponed the final touch date and the value to be paid. The area’s telescope budget exceeds $10 billion and the allocation has most commonly been eaten up to astronomy. Despite its inflated budget, NASA hasn’t released this update in the last 20 years since President George HWBush resigned. Just this week, news announced that the JWST would remain on Earth until at least 2022.

Construction of the JWST began in 2007 and was completed in 2016, with a modest seven-year schedule. Cost overruns were endemic and allocation required more investment almost every year. In 2011, the U. S. House of Representatives Appropriations CommitteeU. S. He found that the allocation was ” billions of dollars over budget and riddled with mismanagement “. Frustrated by emerging costs, Congress eventually limited JWST’s budget to $8 billion. NASA officials testified before Congress, assuring members they were confident that the JWST would be presented in 2018.

Now, the most attentive reader may realize that the current JWST budget of $10 billion exceeds the $8 billion limit imposed by Congress, and that it’s 2021, not 2018 So what was it and how can we fix this process?

A recurring theme in JWST production has been an over-cautious recklessness. On the first day of the vibration checks (which simulate release conditions), for example, the checks were canceled because “there was wind. “The verification anomaly pushed back the entire schedule of tasks over the course of two months. Scientific America called the JWST’s checks “rigorous,” which turns out to be an abundant understatement. The telescope was completed in 2016, but is still “going through its final stages of preparation. “

NR Daily is delivered directly to you every afternoon. free.

Get Jim Geraghty’s guided tour of the day’s political news.

Receive Kevin D. Williamson’s newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday.

A weekly summary and the economy of an NR sensitivity.

We will send The Capital Note to your inbox each and every day of the week.

Even beyond the physical parts of the telescope, scientists and engineers have shown excessive deference to caution and safety. When members of Congress asked for interviews with JWST manufacturer Northrop Grumman and to oversee the project, they were denied. employees.

Even now, some of the recent delays are due to fears that there will be enough staff vaccinated at the release site.

Being careful and using the right tests is obviously necessary, however, at some point the burden of doing more testing outweighs the benefits. Of course, NASA doesn’t need to repeat the Challenger incident. But for the sake of the contributors and the clinical community, NASA will do it. to avoid testing and retesting each and every inch of the design and launch the telescope. It’s great to see photographs of the area from millions of years ago, but it shouldn’t take millions of years to collect them.