# So was the James Webb Space Telescope a top secret project or what? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 17, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166 "2025-08-17T19:08:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/1 "2025-08-17T19:08:08Z")
Ok I’m being sarcastic. I’ve been binging space documentaries lately. And it just got me to thinking. I’ve been a fan of these types of documentaries since I was a kid. Usually these shows are pretty good about telling you about upcoming space missions or space probed being built. And not a single one of these shows mentions JWST. To the best of my knowledge, it took 25 years to get this telescope built. You’d think at least one of them would mention it. I don’t think I recall hearing about it until like a few months before they launched. I remember there being a couple of delays until it finally launched on Christmas Day. I’m just curious if anybody else remembers hearing talk of it before the actual event. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/2 "2025-08-17T19:12:08Z")
I remember reading articles about the Hubble replacement being built. I’m going to search the SDMB archive also to see how long before 2021 it was mentioned. **From 2007** : [Technical Article on the James Webb Telescope](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-article-on-the-james-webb-telescope/407624) **2014** : [How many planets can the James Webb telescope analyze for life in one day?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-planets-can-the-james-webb-telescope-analyze-for-life-in-one-day/705477) **2005** : [NASA can really suck sometimes - #18 by RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-can-really-suck-sometimes/286062/18) **2005** : [White House to Hubble..So long..it's been nice. - #17 by Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-to-hubble-so-long-its-been-nice/286363/17) **2020** : [NASA Space telescope 10 years late and $9 billion over budget (and counting)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-space-telescope-10-years-late-and-9-billion-over-budget-and-counting/855484) & [Cost overruns.... - #3 by Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-overruns/854234/3) This is not all of them, just the first 6 I found. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/3 "2025-08-17T19:14:21Z")
Here’s a mention way back in 2003: > [@Why is NASA so dead set about not recovering the Hubble Telescope now?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nasa-so-dead-set-about-not-recovering-the-hubble-telescope-now/195459/3): > > I am sort of flummoxed on this one. Hubble was supposed to be finished with its mission in 2005, so it look like it’s going to exceed its originally projected lifespan. My concern, and the concern of a good many people who testified at an open hearing on this matter, is that Hubble might be taken down before the James Webb Space Telescope gets up and running. Given the glitches with Hubble’s initial deployment I’d say that was a risky position to be putting ourselves in. For the cost of an add… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/4 "2025-08-17T19:22:45Z")
I don’t remember exactly when I first heard about the JWST, but it was a very long time before it was launched, and probably before it was actually known as the JWST – it was formally named in 2002, 19 years before it launched. I remember hearing about a “next generation space telescope” to replace the Hubble, that it would be bigger and better, and that it would operate primarily in the infrared in order to have better penetration into deep space. I remember thinking that was a strange decision, but it seems to be working well for the people doing the science. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/5 "2025-08-17T20:33:23Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I don’t remember exactly when I first heard about the JWST, but it was a very long time before it was launched, and probably before it was actually known as the JWST – it was formally named in 2002, 19 years before it launched. I remember hearing about a “next generation space telescope” to replace the Hubble… [https://webbtelescope.org/news/milestones/mission-timeline](https://webbtelescope.org/news/milestones/mission-timeline) > **[The Next Generation Space Telescope: Visiting a Time When Galaxies Were Young...](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20220008138)** > > In the spring and summer of 1996, three independent teams studied the feasibility of a large aperture space telescope to follow the Hubble Space Telescope. The scientific goals for the new > telescope had been laid out in a report by the HST & Beyond... > **[NGST.pdf](https://www.eso.org/~rfosbury/ngst/ngst_documents/NGST.pdf)** > > 1669.69 KB The Next Generation Space Telescope became the James Webb Space Telescope and Thompson Ramo Woolridge (TRW) ‘merged with’ (aquired by) Northrop Grumman, both in 2002 as noted. Both Hubble and James Webb are based upon technology developed for the “Key Hole” (specifically the KH-11) electro-optical satellites although obviously using different optics and with very different operational parameters. NASA is planning the [Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/introducing-the-roman-space-telescope/) (apparently someone has decided to informally rename it as just the “Roman Space Telescope”) and the [Habitable Worlds Observatory](https://www.habitableworldsobservatory.org/) (as well as proposals for the yet to be formalized X-Ray Great Observatory and Far-Infrared Great Observatory) as follow-on space observatories. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/6 "2025-08-17T23:54:22Z")
I see Stranger has provided the history of JWST. To add to this, when the project to build the spacecraft began, there were 6 key technologies that were not mature enough to begin construction. This was unprecedented in satellite production. And the project was so secret that in 2013, a full scale model was built and toured the country, including SXSW. > **[James Webb Telescope Model at South by Southwest - NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/james-webb-telescope-model-south-by-southwest/)** > > As big as a tennis court and as tall as a four-story building, a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope model was on display from March 8-10 at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. NASA's James Webb Space... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/7 "2025-08-18T00:02:18Z")
I remember once seeing the clue “Successor to HST” in a crossword puzzle, and being confused that it was only 3 letters, so “NGST” wouldn’t fit. (the answer they were looking for, of course, was “DDE”) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/8 "2025-08-18T00:17:41Z")
And @Pigs_in_Space mentioning the NGST back in 2000: > [@Why no space stations on the moon?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-space-stations-on-the-moon/25258/34): > > I’ve been reading this board and as an aerospace engineer, thought I’d give you a “rocket jockey’s” opinion. If someone came to me at work and proposed a telescope on the moon, here’s what I’d say. There are a few problems with it. Getting it up there. You would have to have a couple of communications satellites orbiting the Moon to get info back and commands to it - remember, it’s on the far side of the Moon. Then, you’d have to build it, have it crash on the Moon, deploy, possibly more th… But as @Stranger_On_A_Train 's link mentions, they’ve been at this since the 80s. Or even earlier if you count any telescope proposal (not just an HST replacement) that’s some variety of “big honking infrared space scope that sits at L2”. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/9 "2025-08-18T12:20:51Z")
There’s this handy visualization [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jwst_delays.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jwst_delays.png) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-was-the-james-webb-space-telescope-a-top-secret-project-or-what/1022166/10 "2025-08-23T17:16:22Z")
I’d be interested in seeing similar graphs for LIGO (now in operation for a decade) and LISA (for which the slope is probably greater than 1).