"Rick Jones" wrote in message
...
Brian Thorn wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jul 2011 15:19:13 -0700 (PDT), bob haller
wrote:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1107/06jwst/

Hallelujia! Too bad they didn't kill "the beast that ate the space
science budget" two years ago.

Was JWST's "trajectory" as it were any worse than that of Hubble?


The real problem is the Government monitors and industry teams will promise
anything to get the program going. It takes a long time to get a program
through initial approval and startup. But after a point it can live forever
since nobody wants to go back to the starting point. So the schedule slips
and the budget goes through the ceiling and all the new start programs get
stomped out of existence. Congressmen protect work in their districts that's
bringing in even more money. Nobody is held responsible. Heads that roll -
roll up hill. Unfortunately for NASA there's no national rational to have
the greatest telescope - they have a system that can be made an example of,
although my bet is we'll see 2 or 3 DoD programs take major hits, cutbacks
or cancellation in the not too distant future.


Val Kraut