NASA Head Says Webb Telescope Plan In Place

BALTIMORE (AP) -- NASA's administrator says the over budget and behind schedule James Webb Space Telescope now has a plan in place for launch in 2018.

NASA Adminstrator Charles Bolden spoke Friday in Baltimore, where a full-size replica of the space telescope went on display in the Inner Harbor.

The retired Marine Corps major general said the space agency did what he called a re-plan after he was put in charge two years ago.

That plan has been reviewed and the Senate has proposed funding the agency thinks will take the Webb into orbit in 2018. A House subcommittee voted earlier this year to end funding for the telescope.

The telescope was originally scheduled to launch in 2007 and cost $3.5 billion, but the budget has since grown to $8.7 billion.

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