James Webb, Hubble space telescopes face reduction in operations

Why operations cost so much

• Several comments stress that the main cost is people, not hardware: hundreds of staff to plan observations, calibrate 17+ modes, maintain software, monitor health, and analyze data.
• Operating infrastructure like the Deep Space Network and contractor support (e.g., paying a prime contractor just to stay on call) adds substantial recurring expense.
• Some argue this is “incredible value for money” given the sophistication and rarity of such instruments; others see it as padded, risk‑averse bureaucracy and “cost-plus” contracting.

Underutilization vs penny‑pinching

• Many see it as irrational to spend ~$10B to launch JWST and then constrain operations to save a fraction of a percent of that per year.
• The cuts are viewed as “penny wise, pound foolish”: wasting sunk investment by throttling science output.

Private wealth, private space, and billionaires

• Multiple comments ask why ultra‑rich individuals don’t simply fund telescopes or operations “for fun.”
• Responses note: most wealth is in stock; spending 10% of net worth is still huge; some rich already fund observatories; and their priorities lean more toward launch systems, Mars/industrial visions, or profit‑linked projects than pure astronomy.
• Debate over whether extreme wealth is treated as a “high score” vs legitimately enabling philanthropy and investment.

Politics, ideology, and anti‑science sentiment

• Strong thread blaming US right‑wing / MAGA politics: hostility to government, climate science, and “globalist” benefits; desire to shrink or sabotage public institutions; “starve the beast” style budget strategy.
• Others emphasize structural government waste, perverse budget incentives, and generalized austerity rather than a targeted anti‑science plot.
• One commenter notes that Biden’s earlier projections were higher; another points out the new proposal is still ~25% below that in real terms.

International partners and alternatives

• ESA/CSA involvement raises the question of whether they could pick up operations; skepticism that Europe will or can shoulder much more, given its own missions and NASA’s history of pulling out of joint projects.
• Some suggest renting telescope time to wealthy institutions or even crowdfunding, but note that similar ideas failed to save Arecibo despite its modest needs.

Scientific return and how to measure it

• Disagreement over whether JWST advances knowledge “less per dollar” than Hubble, using paper counts vs transformative discoveries.
• Others argue raw publication counts are a poor proxy; a few unexpected results from JWST about early galaxies may be more important than sheer volume.