10-Year Plan for Astrophysics Takes JWST Cost into Account

摘要

Costly delays threatening the James Webb Space Telescope's 2014 launch could limit the funding available for NASA's next big-ticket space telescopes and a host of less-expensive projects deemed high priorities in the National Research Council's latest 10-year plan for space- and ground-based astronomy, senior NASA officials said.rnReleased Aug. 13, the As-tro2010 decadal survey - formally titled "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics" -designated the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as the top priority for large missions for the decade ahead. WFIRST would be developed by NASA in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and launch in 2020 at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion to study dark energy, hunt for Earth-like planets and advance scientific understanding of the nature and evolution of galaxies.