Report: Webb telescope has just a 12 percent chance of making launch date

Enlarge / NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was placed in Johnson Space Center's historic Chamber A for vacuum testing on June 20, 2017. (credit: NASA)

NASA says it is holding to a March 2021 launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope, but a new report from the US Government Accountability Office suggests the mission probably will not happen then.

Because the space agency and the telescope's prime contractor, Northrop Grumman, continue to tackle serious technical problems, the report estimates that there is only a 12 percent chance that the large space telescope will launch in March 2021. It is due to lift off on board an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

NASA generally uses a "70 percent confidence level" to establish dates for missions, and if that were the case for the Webb telescope, the new report says the launch date would likely slip to July 2021. It also warns that additional problems could arise during the final phases of assembling and integrating the telescope for launch.

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