Space telescope camera passes tests

Engineers in Britain say they have completed testing a European telescope intended for the financially-troubled James Webb Space Telescope.The Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, will be a key instrument on the space telescope intended as the successor to the Hubble Space Observatory.In space MIRI must be frozen to 7 degrees above absolute zero (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) to provide the sensitivity needed to see the earliest light sources in the universe, the BBC reported Thursday.In tests, MIRI spent 86 days at temperatures near absolute zero in a lab in Oxford, after which all systems were functioning normally, engineers said.While tests on MIRI are ongoing, there is considerable doubt about the fate of the space telescope itself.The U.S. House Appropriations Committee proposed a bill last month that would terminate the telescope's funding, amid claims the project is billions of dollars over budget and has been poorly managed.