James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a planned (to be launched in 2018) space telescope optimized for observations in the infrared. It is the formal successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. It has been in planning since 1996 and represents a collaboration of about 17 countries led by NASA, and with significant contributions from the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. It is named after James E. Webb, the second administrator of NASA, who played an integral role in the Apollo program.

The JWST project was badly behind schedule and over its ever increasing budget, a US House committee voted to axe the partially completed telescope entirely in 2011. However, later US Congress reversed plans to cancel the JWST and instead capped additional funding to complete the project at $8 billion.