Cuts likely for one of NASA’s next big space-based telescopes

[Buster's Uncle]

Cuts likely for one of NASA’s next big space-based telescopes
New Scientist  November 2017



Will it take off?  TJT Photography/Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA


ONE of NASA’s next big telescopes is facing cuts due to skyrocketing costs.

The budget for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) has ballooned from a projected $2 billion to at least $3.9 billion, according to a recent report by an independent review team.

That is due to an upgraded 2.4-metre telescope and an added coronagraph, which reveals exoplanets by blocking light from their parent stars. As its scope and scale has crept up, its launch date has slipped to the mid-2020s.

The report recommends cutting costs, noting that removing the coronagraph would save $400 million. They won’t cut that, but will reduce the science mission and alter the telescope to keep it under $3.2 billion, wrote Thomas Zurbuchen at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in a memo. He says WFIRST remains NASA’s highest astrophysics priority after the James Webb Space Telescope.


https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631543-700-cuts-likely-for-one-of-nasas-next-big-spacebased-telescopes/