Space to ground

摘要

At the largest conference of astronomers in the United States, the biggest astronomy mission under development was virtuaily a no-show. The partial government shutdown that started Dec. 22 kept NASA civil servants from attending the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle in early January. That included those officials managing the James Webb Space Telescope, a mission treated by many astronomers with both anticipation and trepidation: the former because of its scientific potential, the latter because of its latest round of cost overruns and schedule delays.