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I think you're getting downvoted because what you're saying doesn't match up with the wiki article you linked.

The original estimate was for $1.6 billion, in I'm guessing the 90s, and the estimate had been updated to $5 billion by the time it was formally confirmed for construction.

> The telescope was originally estimated to cost US$1.6 billion,[102] but the cost estimate grew throughout the early development and had reached about US$5 billion by the time the mission was formally confirmed for construction start in 2008.

So yes, it has been over budget, but by 2x-3x, not 20x, and that isn't adjusted for inflation.

Also, everything is just a money pit until it's launched/finished/etc.




Adjusted for inflation it'd be about $2.5 billion this year. So it's almost exactly 2x.


According to the budget table, when the project started in 1997, the budget plan was 500 million. Today its close to 10 billion.


That was likely just a bare bones estimate and closer to the costs of initiating the project than the full cost of designing, building, and launching a satellite.

Based on this link, NASA hadn't even settled on a design/contractor in 1998.

https://esahubble.org/images/opo9820a/




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