The
Space Telescope Science Institute (
STSCI) is the science operations center for the
Hubble Space Telescope and for the
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST; scheduled to be launched in 2018). STSCI is located on the
Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus in
Baltimore,
Maryland and was established in 1981 as a community-based science center that is operated for
NASA by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). Today, in addition to performing continuing science operations of HST and preparing for scientific exploration with JWST, STScI manages and operates the
Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes](MAST), the Data Management Center for the
Kepler mission and a number of other activities benefiting from its expertise in and infrastructure for supporting the operations of space-based astronomical observatories. Most of the funding for STScI activities comes from contracts with NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center but there are smaller activities funded by NASA's
Ames Research Center, NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the
European Space Agency (ESA). The staff at STScI consists of scientists (mostly astronomers and astrophysicists), software engineers, data management and telescope operations personnel, education and public outreach experts, and administrative and business support personnel. There are approximately 100 Ph.D. scientists working at STScI, 15 of which are ESA staff who are on assignment to the HST project. The total STScI staff consists of about 450 people.