'Eight billion bucks or bust': From pirates to 'stupid mistakes' -- the wild story of how James Webb Space Telescope almost failed to launch

"Budget overruns, bureaucratic malfeasance, congressional oversight, review-​board reckonings, the whole process of rethinking how to test a space telescope from the ground up: Webb had survived them all. One other factor, however, continued to create havoc with the budget and the launch timeline deep into the 2010s -- what Menzel called 'stupid mistakes.'"