spacetoday.net: House budget proposal would kill JWST

Posted: Thu, Jul 7, 2011, 6:33 AM ET (1033 GMT)
James Webb Space Telescope (NASA)

A proposed appropriations bill released Wednesday by a House of Representatives committee would slash nearly $2 billion from NASA's 2012 budget request and end the troubled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program. The budget, released Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee, would given NASA $16.8 billion, down from the $18.7 billion in the administration's request for NASA in the 2012 fiscal year, which starts this October. Few specific funding details about the budget have been disclosed, but the committee states it would terminate funding for JWST, a program to develop a successor to the Hubble Space Telscope that has suffered from major cost overruns and schedule delays. A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will vote on the bill on Thursday, and the full committee will take it up next week before going to the full House. The Senate has not yet started its version of the NASA budget.