Space telescope revived? Breaking down NASA's fiscal 2012 appropriations

As part of its approval of NASA's fiscal year 2012 budget on Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations subcommittee in charge of NASA's budget included about $500 million to help fund the James Webb Space Telescope.

The full Appropriations Committee approved the space agency's $17.9 billion budget on Thursday. The Senate version is about $1 billion more than what the House approved earlier this summer, but about $800 million less than what the Obama administration requested.

The telescope, which is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2018, is designed to be the successor to the popular but aging Hubble Space Telescope. Getting it into orbit by 2018 is expected to cost more than $8 billion, or $1.5 billion more than what had been forecast by an independent panel in 2010.

In its version of NASA's budget, the House eliminated all funding for the telescope due to its escalating development costs. "Although JWST is a particularly serious example, significant cost overruns are commonplace at NASA, and the Committee believes that the underlying causes will never be fully addressed if the Congress does not establish clear consequences for failing to meet budget and schedule expectations," the panel wrote in its appropriations report.

The Senate Appropriations Committee noted the importance of the telescope to science, but also took into consideration the cost overruns in approving $529.6 million for it in fiscal 2012. The Senate bill would cap the telescope's overall development costs at $8 billion. Whether the telescope will be funded ultimately depends on negotiations between House and Senate members who will need to reconcile differences between the two bills.

Meanwhile, NASA is waiting to hear from the Office of Management and Budget about a plan the agency hatched to use funds from throughout NASA to help pay for the telescope, which NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has designated a priority.