While lawmakers in Congress argue over funding for America’s next great space telescope, Russia this week launched its Spektr-R radio telescope which is expected to be thousands of times more powerful than the United States’ famed Hubble telescope.

 

Spektr-R’s mission will be to search the universe for black holes, quasar radio sources and pulsars and send back to earth images with a resolution 100,000 times that of the Hubble.

 

Meanwhile, in Washington, Republicans in the House have tried to end all funding for the James Webb Space Telescope which is years behind schedule and proving to be far more expensive than first proposed. Conceived in the mid-1990s, the telescope was supposed to launch in 2007 and cost about $500 million. Now, the price tag is threatening to reach $7 billion, and it may not go up into space until 2015.

 

Even if the House eliminates all funding for the project, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) intends to restore financing in the Senate’s version of the budget.

 

Mikulski’s state is home to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which is managing the telescope program.

 

The telescope debate highlights a larger problem for NASA as it searches for a new mission and funding base as its shuttle program draws to a close. Atlantis, the last space shuttle, left the International Space Station Tuesday and is expected to make its final return on Thursday.  

-by Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Russia Launches Giant Telescope in Deep Space Return (by Stuart Williams, Agence France Presse)

Move Afoot to Keep Webb Telescope Alive (by Jen DiMascio, Aviation Week)

After Hubble: Will Budget Woes Kill NASA's Next Great Telescope? (by Michael Lemonick, Time Magazine)

Scientists Condemn Plans to Scrap Hubble Telescope Successor (by Denise Chow, Space.com)

Last Shuttle Leaves Space Station, Due Back Thurs. (by Marcia Dunn, Associated Press)