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I work for the Keck Observatory (engineer). Far as I know we do not have any 3D animators on staff. We produce images from our science instruments for the astronomers to download and they all eventually end up here: https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/koa/public/koa.php
Replacing old stuff is a challenge. What is the effort to spin up a whole new widget that does the task, and how do we test it sufficiently to prove it has the same results as the old one? Do you need to run it on sky? If so, can you switch it on/off quickly so we can run the old stuff for science and run the new stuff on an engineering night to prove equivalency? It's difficult to replace but not impossible.
The best outcome you can hope for is some new instrument with better capabilities comes online before the old one dies horribly. For computing systems, we have projects to replace the old stuff with new machines and new OS's and take the time to work out the kinks and bits of tribal knowledge we realize all too late that we lost when so-and-so retired. This is not atypical in the computing industry.
In summary: yeah, things can be hard to replace. There's inertia associated with old systems you have to balance the thought to "string it along, ebay/graymarket a replacement" versus reinventing it.
OK that's a good set of questions.
1) Is our job different from product development in the real world? Yes. I have worked for big business, I've done startups. It's categorically different here. We are responsible to maintain a set of telescopes and do science every night, that's our priority. Development of new capabilities is important but comes second after getting the "production" systems ready every day for observing.
2) Do projects get cancelled? Not from my perspective, things slow down sometimes and business priorities shift. We have new capabilities that come online over time and we spend development effort to get that integrated into the facility. It has a schedule and we spend our allocated time towards that.
3) Projects past their prime: yes, some things get really old and are built from unobtanium. Ever hear of a transputer? We make heroic efforts to keep that old stuff running and for the most part we get it done.
4) Does our contribution matter? Absolutely. Everyone is on task and really does a good job of keeping things running smoothly. I've been in industry for 25 years and I can see our team is on point and we are all doing a great job keeping it going. There is an enthusiasm I've not seen in other industries here. That's not to say it's all roses. We have shitty nights where everything seems to go wrong. That said we get it fixed the next day or so and keep on truckin'.
Don't take it for a fantasy, but it's a pretty neat situation we have here. If you are a software engineer we have a few openings. Working in Hawaii has it's peculiar challenges and it's not for everyone. Apply! You never know what could happen once you throw your hat in!
I work for Keck as a software engineer. What do you want to know? It's not all upside, working for pure science like this. We like to "fly the prototype", so to speak. Despite the challenges of it being a 25 year old pair of telescopes that are constantly climbing the far wall of the bathtub curve, it's a damn cool place to work at.
I work at the Keck Observatory. The author of the article is the director. She's been working with us for 25 years and is as close to family as you can get. We're all on a first name basis here!