Special Report: James Webb Space Telescope billions over budget, years behind schedule

NASA’s next great space telescope will cost taxpayers at least four times more than planned and launch at least seven years late, FLORIDA TODAY reported in its Sunday morning edition.

Considered by scientists the most important space mission of the decade, the James Webb Space Telescope project is being overhauled for the second time in five years because of skyrocketing costs and cascading schedule delays.

Decision-makers initially were told the observatory would cost $1.6 billion and launch this year on a mission to look deeper into space and further back in time than the Hubble Space Telescope, in a quest for new clues about the formation of our universe and origins of life.

NASA now says the telescope can’t launch until at least 2018, though outside analysts suggest the flight could slip past 2020. The latest estimated price tag: up to $6.8 billion. NASA admits the launch delay will push the bill even higher.

Read the full report about the James Webb Space Telescope budget problems and schedule delays.