From Scientific American:听Any way you slice it, NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the boldest, highest-stakes gambles in the space agency鈥檚 storied history. Just building and testing the observatory has proved to be a dauntingly complex technological enterprise, pushing the observatory鈥檚 astronomical price tag to nearly $9 billion and requiring participation from the European and Canadian space agencies. JWST is both a barrier-breaking and budget-busting undertaking.