Northrop CEO Wes Bush Open to Make Webb Telescope Contract Fees Contingent on Mission Outcome

Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush has said he would be open to making the company’s award fees from the James Webb Space Telescope development contract depend on the successful commissioning of NASA’s space observatory following launch, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

“As a mechanism to ensure we are all aligned on mission success, Northrop Grumman has actually discussed this with NASA, and we are willing to place all of the fee that we’ve already earned and the fee that we may earn in the future at risk based on successful activation and demonstration of the telescope on orbit,” Bush said Thursday during a House Science Committee hearing.

Bush, a four-time Wash100 awardee, also fielded questions about cost overruns related to the JWST project and the company’s efforts to mitigate human errors.

He noted that Northrop implements a “safety net” to detect human errors at an early stage and has begun to comply with the independent review board’s recommendations for the Webb telescope program.

The board’s recommendations prompted NASA to set March 30, 2021, as the new launch date for the telescope.