No Reciprocal China Visit Planned, JWST Still Under Review, Bolden Tells AvWeek

A reciprocal visit from Chinese space officials to NASA is not yet being planned according to an interview Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Frank Mooring conducted with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden on November 23. Bolden visited China last month.

Morring quotes Bolden as saying: “There is not a delegation coming next month as far as I know…. A reciprocal visit is something we continue to work with the interagency organizations … trying to figure out the timing on that…. I wouldn’t even say there is a reciprocal visit planned. I think everyone would like to see one, but everybody’s still in conversations.”

Ideas put forward for cooperation by Russian space agency head Anatoly Perminov in November similarly are “going nowhere fast,” according to the magazine.

Regarding the $1.5 billion cost growth on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently revealed by an independent panel, Bolden is quoted by Aviation Week as saying that the panel’s study was “only ‘back of the envelope'” and the issue is now being studied more thoroughly by a new management team. The goal is to enable the agency to “present a creditable story to the science community as well as all of our stakeholders” next year. As reported earlier by SpacePolicyOnline.com, the NAC astrophysics subcommittee will get an update on JWST on December 22 and a town hall meeting is scheduled for January 10, 2011 at the AAS annual meeting in Seattle.