The most expansive telescope in the world lifts off on a historical mission. this can be the greatest Innovation for Human history
The observatory was lifted skyward by an Ariane rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana
NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope on Saturday, after years of delays and budget hikes. James Webb is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope and expected to revolutionize astronomy.
NASA sent $10 billion worth of delicate hardware screaming into the skies above French Guiana on Saturday, when it launched the James Webb Space Telescope at 7:20 a.m. ET.
JWST, or “Webb” for short, is the first big telescope to rocket past Earth’s atmosphere since the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in 1990.
Webb, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, is six times larger and 100 times more powerful than its predecessor. Astronomers expect it to fill a mysterious gap in the historical record of our universe the first 400 million years after the Big Bang — and to identify distant worlds that could host alien life.
The James Webb will unfold itself in space with 344 opportunities for failure
It will take about a month for Webb to reach its destination: an orbit around the sun, trailing Earth by 1 million miles, which is about four times the distance between the moon and Earth. Along the way, the telescope must unfold itself — a risky proposition.
Webb has two major components: a hexagonal mirror made of 18 gold-coated segments and a sunshield the size of a tennis court, which deflects sunlight to keep the telescope cool. Both were too large to fit in a rocket, so NASA folded them up like a drop-leaf table.
Webb’s first year in space could change our understanding of be half of the universe
It will take about a month for Webb to reach its destination: an orbit around the sun, trailing Earth by 1 million miles, which is about four times the distance between the moon and Earth. Along the way, the telescope must unfold itself — a risky proposition.
Webb has two major components: a hexagonal mirror made of 18 gold-coated segments and a sunshield the size of a tennis court, which deflects sunlight to keep the telescope cool. Both were too large to fit in a rocket, so NASA folded them up like a drop-leaf table.
