Mikulski: Committee Bill Includes Webb Funding
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski says a bill passed by a Senate committee includes funding for the James Webb Telescope.
Mikulski announced Thursday that the appropriations committee bill includes $5.1 billion for NASA, including the full $530 million needed for a 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. In July, the Baltimore Democrat criticized a House subcommittee vote to end funding for the space telescope, saying the move would kill 2,000 jobs nationwide. Mikulski chairs a Senate appropriations subcommittee that passed funding for the telescope.
The telescope is planned as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope run by the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute, but has been beset by cost overruns. NASA announced last year that the telescope's budget had ballooned from $3.5 billion to $5 billion.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
