AAS Public Policy Blog

American Astronomical Society Statement on the James Webb Space Telescope

Adopted 7 July 2011

The proposal released on July 6 by the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to terminate the James Webb Space Telescope would waste more taxpayer dollars than it saves while simultaneously undercutting the critical effort to utilize American engineering and ingenuity to expand human knowledge. Such a proposal threatens American leadership in the fields of astrophysics and advanced space technology while likely eliminating hundreds, if not thousands, of high-tech jobs. Additionally, this proposal comes before the completion of a revised construction plan and budget for a launch of JWST by 2018. The United States position as the leader in astronomy, space science, and spaceflight is directly threatened by this proposal.

The JWST is the highest-ranked mission in the National Academy of Science’s Astronomy and Astrophysics decadal survey released in 2000 and remains a high priority for the Nation’s astronomers in this decade as well, as the revolutionary successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This survey, conducted once every 10 years by hundreds of the Nation’s leading scientists, prioritizes — based on scientific merit and impact — projects proposed by the scientific community that require significant government support for completion. These reports represent a community consensus on the efforts necessary to advance our knowledge of the universe. The potential of JWST to transform astronomy underlies many of the activities recommended in the 2010 decadal report released last August. JWST is designed to observe well beyond Hubble’s capabilities. It is expected to serve thousands of astronomers in the coming decades to revolutionize our understanding of our place in the Universe, just as Hubble has done since its completion and launch just over two decades ago.

The JWST’s completion, launch, and operation will unveil new knowledge about the earliest formation of stars and planets and on a wide range of additional advanced scientific questions, including many not yet formulated. As was true with the Hubble Space Telescope, recognized as a tremendous success by the public, scientists, and policy-makers, building the most advanced telescopes comes with the risk of unexpected costs and delays. However, the whole Nation can rightly take pride in the engineering and scientific accomplishment that the completion and launch of such instruments represents. With the help of important international partners, we are the only nation that could lead such an effort; we should not shirk from completing the project when the most difficult engineering challenges have already been overcome. As stated in the Casani report, an independent review of project readiness completed late last year, “The JWST Project has made excellent progress in developing the difficult technologies required for its successful operation, and no technical constraints to successful completion have been identified.” The mirrors stand ready and waiting for integration into the spacecraft. The telescope has passed both preliminary design review and critical design review. It is time to complete construction and look ahead to JWST’s launch and science operations.

The American Astronomical Society calls upon all members of Congress to support JWST to its completion and to provide strong oversight on the path to this goal. Too many taxpayer dollars have already been spent to cancel the mission now; its benefits far outweigh the remaining costs. We must see the mission through. We are a great nation and we do great things. JWST represents our highest aspirations and will be one of our most significant accomplishments.

AAS Council Resolutions and Statements

Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer

Background

As part of the annual appropriations process, subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee are the first to draft proposed appropriations bills for the coming fiscal year. On July 6, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice and Science posted a press release and the draft bill language on their website for the bill that funds NASA, NSF and other science related agencies along with the Departments of Commerce and Justice. On Thursday, July 7 at 10:15am, the subcommittee will “mark up”, or debate, amend and rewrite proposed legislation. It is highly likely that the bullet points included in the press release will remain intact in the final marked-up version of the bill.

The press release is here: http://appropriations.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=250023

The draft bill text is here: http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/CJSFY12SUBCxml.pdf (note, the specific language cutting JWST is not included in this bill, it will appear in the subcommittee report, which should become available after the markup, which takes place on July 7 at 10am).

A summary table of the top-line funding for each department or agency is here: http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/FY2012CJSSummaryTable.pdf

Details

The bill represents a proposal from the House for the funding levels for FY2012, not an actual reduction or cut. The Senate must act and the two houses must meet and resolve differences in their funding proposals before the bill is finalized and sent to the president for his signature. Often, this process takes many months and sometimes even ends in an omnibus appropriations bill being created instead of individual bills being passed. In any event, this proposal from this appropriations subcommittee is but the first step in a much longer process.

Along with the proposed termination of the JWST, NASA’s overall budget is proposed to be reduced by $1.6B compared to last year’s level and $1.9B lower than the president’s proposed level for NASA. NSF is also impacted, with a proposed budget about $907M less than the president’s proposed level, but in-line with last year’s funding level.

Other cuts are mentioned in the press release, but it is difficult to assess their impact until the full report language is available. In some years, reductions actually represented movements of one area of work (e.g. the Deep Space Network) from one budget line to another. When the full details become available, the AAS will issue an Informational Email describing them and their impact.

What to Do Now

Obviously, this proposal from the House Appropriations Subcommittee for CJS is upsetting. The astronomy community knows the value of the JWST, recognizes that nearly all technical hurdles have been overcome and that a review of the program’s management, budget and completion plan is nearly complete. It is important to remember that the release of the House versions of the appropriations bills is just the first step in the lengthy appropriations process. For now, this termination is a proposal and one we should take seriously with the knowledge that making a few communications now to legislators will not be the end of a process, but merely the beginning. The outrage and upset the community is experiencing cannot be merely today or this week, we must ration our energy to effectively participate throughout the whole appropriations process.

When it is particularly effective for AAS members to write or contact their members of Congress, we will issue an Action Alert. Action Alerts should be read carefully and, if possible, acted upon expeditiously. We only send them when the action of our members will have a direct and positive impact. If you haven’t met your member of Congress, don’t know who they are exactly or aren’t quite sure how the appropriations process proceeds, take the time now to educate yourself. The AAS provides a web page under the public policy pages that allows you to identify your members of Congress and obtain their contact information. The AAAS maintains a comprehensive web page that provides educational information about the budget process with historical information about funding as well as regular updates on the appropriations process throughout the year at www.aaas.org/spp/rd. Other resources are linked to from the AAS public policy pages.

AAS Statement on Proposed JWST Cancellation The AAS leadership is crafting a statement on the proposed JWST cancellation, which will be released today and is working to formulate responses to the other proposed cuts to science that the subcommittee’s press release describes. We will keep our members informed and help find ways to have a meaningful impact on the appropriations process.