Northrop Grumman stated that no employees responsible for the human errors that led to JWST delays lost their jobs.
NASA identified that cuts to WFIRST to pay JWST cost overruns would take place in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 and would have the effect of slowing the WFIRST project.
On 2019-07-25 NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine recommended slowing development of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) until after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is launched to address JWST delays and cost overruns.
Both House and Senate versions of appropriations bills funding NASA provide the full $304,600,000 for JWST in 2018-10-01.
NASA’s fiscal year 2019 budget request sought $304,600,000 for JWST.
NASA plans to reallocate the $310,000,000 previously budgeted for JWST operations in 2019-10-01 and 2020-10-01 to development spending.
NASA expects JWST to launch on an Ariane 5 that the European Space Agency will provide in exchange for a share of observing time on the telescope.
NASA had planned to spend a total of $310,000,000 on JWST operations in fiscal years 2020 and 2021.
The 29-month JWST launch delay incurs about $1,000,000,000 in additional costs.
NASA will need an extra $490,000,000 for JWST in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 above previously budgeted amounts.
NASA chartered an independent review board in March that completed a review offering about 30 recommendations which NASA accepted to revise JWST development and oversight of work at prime contractor Northrop Grumman.
JWST is scheduled to launch around May 2020 under the revised timeline.
The Astro2020 schedule was intended to accommodate earlier schedules for JWST, which was originally to launch in October 2018.
NASA requested $305,000,000 for JWST in its 2019 budget proposal and expected to need nearly $200,000,000 in fiscal year 2020.
Congress set an $8,000,000,000 development cost cap for JWST in the 2011 re-plan, and the mission remained within that cap at the time of the delay announcement.