Less than four years after its showstopping launch, the James Webb Space Telescope is facing massive budget slashes that will, experts worry, harm scientific progress and stymie the beloved observatory’s operations.
As Space.com reports, the research center that oversees Webb’s operations has been directed to steel the observatory for up to 20 percent in budget cuts.
Officials with that center, the Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci) that also oversees the Hubble and Chandra space telescope missions, says the cuts will likely impact every aspect of Webb’s operations.
“NASA is having budget constraints across the entire board, so the institute is being asked to consider a significant — about 20 percent — cut to our operational budget for the mission starting later this year,” Tom Brown, the head of the Webb mission at STSci, told his fellow scientists during a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), per Space.com. “So the impacts of that, if it comes to pass, pretty much cut across the entire mission.”
It remains unclear if these cuts were ordered prior to Donald Trump taking office and letting Elon Musk run rampant on the federal government. Given that the new administration has already forced mass firings and implemented rollbacks on equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies at NASA, for which the STSci operates as a non-profit, there’s little reason to think Trump and Musk’s government dismantling couldn’t be related to the forthcoming Webb budget cuts.
It’s also unclear when these cuts will go into effect and if they’ll affect NASA’s 2025 budget, which was granted by Joe Biden’s administration last May and set aside $317 million for the JWST.
As Brown told his fellow astronomers during the AAS meeting, Webb has exceeded expectations since it was launched on Christmas Day in 2021 — and the thought of losing any of its earmarked money this soon into the mission is troubling.
“It’s extremely worrisome that, while we’re in the middle of the prime mission, we’re also maybe looking at significant budget cuts,” he said.
During that same AAS meeting, STSci project scientist Macarena Garcia Marin echoed that ethos.
“In a nutshell, [the telescope] is truly fulfilling its promise,” Garcia Marin said. “Across every field, JWST is truly delivering cutting-edge science.”
With one-fifth of its relatively small budget facing the chopping block, the team behind the Webb telescope is rightfully concerned about the future of their mission.
“It’s a huge cut. That’s not like kind of trying to nibble away at the edges,” Brown said in an interview with Space.com. “That impacts everything across the board.”
More on Webb’s important work: James Webb Spots First-Ever Alien “Steam World”
