2 ms·

14 years "late" is not exactly accurate as the initial time projections were based upon full funding from the initial moments of the project - which was never a

14 years "late" is not exactly accurate as the initial time projections were based upon full funding from the initial moments of the project - which was never a realistic goal. Similarly, the 20x budget overrun number makes two errors - 1. that the initial numbers were in today's inflation adjusted dollars (which they were not), and that project scope remained exactly the same - which it has not. Numerous aspects of the telescope have been enhanced/improved to accommodate additional science.

nickff 6y ago
The project was supposed to take 10 years and is already at 24! That's simply atrocious, and saying that they didn't get everything they wanted to is a poor excuse. I ran the numbers for inflation adjustment, and 500MM in 1997 is equivalent to ~811MM today. That means the project is between 12x-20x over budget... not much of an improvement in my mind.