Why the Hubble Space Telescope life cycle program cost over $15B in today's dollars (and why it didn't have to)

Greg Davidson

doi:10.1117/12.799542

29 August 2008 Why the Hubble Space Telescope life cycle program cost over $15B in today's dollars (and why it didn't have to)

Greg Davidson

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7071, An Optical Believe It or Not: Key Lessons Learned; 707102 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.799542
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2008, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Hubble Space Telescope is by far the most successful scientific spacecraft ever launched. According to the Science News metric, Hubble has produced 25% of NASA's scientific return since its launch in 1990, or roughly 1.5% of world-wide discovery in all fields of science, from archeology to biomedicine to zoology. Yet despite this outstanding success, Hubble has also been expensive, totaling $15B* in FY09$. There are many lessons to be learned from Hubble's history concerning how to execute scientific missions more cost effectively, and fortunately some of those lessons have already been demonstrated on programs such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory, while others are being carried forward in the spacecraft of today.

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Greg Davidson "Why the Hubble Space Telescope life cycle program cost over $15B in today's dollars (and why it didn't have to)", Proc. SPIE 7071, An Optical Believe It or Not: Key Lessons Learned, 707102 (29 August 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.799542

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