NASA unveils new space telescope

NASA’s new gold-covered telescope will put the Hubble to shame

4/28/16

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/04/28/nasas-new-gold-covered-telescope-will-put-the-hubble-to-shame/



NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has unveiled the James Webb Space Telescope. This new space telescope is a 14300 pound, $8.8 billion piece of hardware. This telescope has been in the works for more than two decades. This telescope is powerful enough to capture the heat signature of a bumblebee on the moon. This project, however impressive, has been fraught with controversy. Certain members of the United States Congress have tried to de-fund the project for years. Many do not see the inherent importance of this new technological and scientific advancement. In 2011 one of those attempts was even close to succeeding in killing this amazing thing. With the project falling behind schedule members of the House Appropriations Committee tried to take away it's funding in a 2011/2012 spending bill.


NASA is an administration that is part of the much larger Federal Bureaucracy. It's job is to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." This independent agency is given much leeway and discretionary authority within it's day to day operation. While congress still has to fund large projects pushed by the agency, much of it's operation is too complex for and specified for individual congresspeople to understand. This agency was given it's authorization legislation in 1958 to look forward and to push for scientific greatness. This is something the agency has accomplished, and continues to accomplish today
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