With budget and schedule over-runs, the project is being threatened with cancellation, despite full support from NASA itself. The JWST is the next-generation space observatory beyond the Hubble Space Telescope, and hopes to continue the huge legacy of scientific exploration and understanding of the Universe that was initiated by the HST. The HST’s contribution to this understanding really cannot be underestimated. As the shuttle programme finally comes to and end within the next few days, you could ask ‘what was the shuttle’s greatest scientific contribution?’ And without doubt it would the launch, and in-orbit servicing of the HST. The ISS doesn’t really count in this argument – the ISS has been (and continues to be) a great engineering enterprise, necessary if we are to learn how to live and work as humans in space, but it’s scientific value cannot be compared to that of the HST programme.
There is a great deal at stake here. The measure of our civilisation is bound up in our culture, which includes facets such as art, music, literature, and our innate curiosity which drives scientific and physical exploration. I hope that sense prevails, and we see a next-generation space observatory such as the JWST to continue the spectacular research that the HST has performed over the years. Maybe the JWST will allow us to see all the way back to the creation event we call the Big Bang, and what revelations would that reveal?
There is a great deal at stake here. The measure of our civilisation is bound up in our culture, which includes facets such as art, music, literature, and our innate curiosity which drives scientific and physical exploration. I hope that sense prevails, and we see a next-generation space observatory such as the JWST to continue the spectacular research that the HST has performed over the years. Maybe the JWST will allow us to see all the way back to the creation event we call the Big Bang, and what revelations would that reveal?
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