Program Management Council (PMC) April 2006

The project and several independent review teams presented the technical and programmatic status of the JWST program to the NASA Administrator. The development progress remains excellent with all 18 mirror segments being machined at AXSYS (one is scheduled to be completed in May). The demonstrations of the Technical Readiness Level 6 for all major new technologies are on track for the technical portion of the Non Advocate Review (T-NAR) in January 2007. The chief concern voiced by the Special Review Team (SRT) was the low level of funding contingency over the next four years. This factor and the overall level of uncommitted contingency (~19%) are comparable to that of Chandra. NASA and TRW (now NGST) were able to manage the cost growth on Chandra so that its final Life Cycle Cost (~ $3.7B in 2005 dollars through launch + 5 years of science operations) was remarkably close to that anticipated seven years before launch (see Hefner & Davidson). The costs of JWST have not increased in the last year and will be the subject of the second portion of the NAR, now scheduled for early 2008 (near the PDR).