After a series of delays and billions spent over budget, the James Webb Space Telescope is on track to launch in 2018 at a total project cost of $8.8 billion, according to Nasa.

The project, which aims to build the world’s most powerful telescope, 100 times more sensitive than Hubble, has been riddled by poor management and cost overruns.

Garth Illingworth, an astronomer and professor at University of California, Santa Cruz, was part of an independent comprehensive review panel that reviewed Nasa’s work on the JWST and issued a report last year.