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Schumer pushes for NASA telescope funding with parts being built in Rochester

Caitlin Whyte
/
WXXI News
Credit Caitlin Whyte / WXXI News
/
WXXI News

Senator Chuck Schumer was in Rochester Tuesday to announce new jobs and projects at Harris Corporation.

Schumer was pushing for funding for NASAs WFIRST mission, which stands for Wire Field Infrared Survey Telescope.

Senator Chuck Schumer was in Rochester Tuesday to announce new jobs and projects at Harris Corporation. WXXI's Caitlin Whyte has more.

Parts of the telescope are being built at Harris. He said the telescope would be used to explore dark energy and its implications for the universe.

"It will have the same image precision as the Hubble Telescope which was the previous one but will see 100 times larger area further out than Hubble. That is the advantage of this. So it will do things like measure exploding stars."

Congress will decide on whether or not to pass the $352 million funding by Christmas.

Credit Caitlin Whyte / WXXI News
/
WXXI News

Harris also announced that they would be hiring 50 new contract workers due to a new military radio contract, as well as adding 140 new full-time positions.

They said they would also be investing $90 million in their Rochester facilities for research and development purposes.

Copyright 2018 WXXI News

Caitlin Whyte
Caitlin joins WXXI after working down the street at Stephens Media Group where, she co hosted a children's radio show, "Saturday Morning CarTunes" on WARM 101.3 and worked as a traffic reporter for various affiliates.