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U.S. Congress questioned the launch of the changer "Hubble". / July 15, 2011 /

Special Commission of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday approved a proposal put forward earlier refusal to increase the budget of NASA in 2012. This solution reduces the chances of launching a new telescope, «James Webb,» which is to replace the «Hubble.» Details leads American newspaper Florida Today.

Most congressmen voted for the budget cuts of the American space agency to $ 1.6 billion. As a result, in 2012, NASA will have a sum of 16.8 billion dollars. In addition, Congress approved a proposal made last week to wind up work on construction of the telescope. That the plan was implemented, it must again be approved by the lower house of Congress and the Senate.

Recently, a special commission to audit NASA announced an increase in the estimated value of works on creation of the telescope, «James Webb,» $ 1.5 billion — the total cost of the mission now is about $ 6.5 billion. According to other estimates, «James Webb» could cost the U.S. budget to $ 7.8 billion. The estimated launch date of the telescope all the time pushed back — if it was originally planned to send into orbit in 2014, but now we are talking about 2018 year. Reducing the budget for the establishment of the telescope, according to some experts, can push the time of its launch at least another two years.

To date, the construction of the telescope has already been spent $ 3 billion. After the commission published its findings, the head of NASA, Charles Bolden said that the leadership of the project is changed.

According to its characteristics, «James Webb» has much to surpass the famous «Hubble», which brought an unprecedented amount of data. Diameter primary mirror of the new telescope will be 6.5 meters (the «Hubble», this parameter is equal to 2.4 meters), and its configuration can be changed arbitrarily to carry out specific observations. «James Webb» will be in permanent shadow of the Earth in the so-called Lagrangian point L2 at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from the planet.

Source: Lenta.Ru

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