Posted: Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:47 AM ET (1347 GMT)
NASA will perform a new detailed cost and schedule estimate for the James Webb Space Telescope this year amid concerns the project is using up schedule margin too quickly. In a response to a GAO report this week, NASA said it will update a "joint confidence level" cost and schedule assessment for the mission before a system integration review scheduled for August. At a meeting Tuesday of a National Academies committee, Tom Young, chairman of the independent review board that examined the project last year, said he was worried that margin built into the revised schedule for the mission was being used up at a rate "significantly higher than we would have expected." NASA project officials said that while they have used up schedule margin allocated for spacecraft testing and integration, there is still months of margin set aside for other phases of its development leading up to a March 2021 launch.

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