After two decades of development, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally headed for space. The launch was delayed a couple of times this past week, due to tracking issues and weather concerns, but the Christmas Day launch went off. The mission took off today aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana, at 12:20 GMT. It will now make its way to Lagrange point L2 – a place in space far away from the Earth in the exact opposite direction from the Sun.
The JWST was set to take off in March, but that was postponed to October due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. NASA then pushed it back to 18 December, but that was delayed twice in December near launch—the first time when the unplanned release of a clamp band caused a vibration through the observatory that warranted investigation, while on 14 December NASA announced that the craft would not launch before 24 December due to the discovery of a “communications issue” between the observatory and the launch vehicle system.
Now that the observatory has finally got off the ground, astronomers will be hoping that once it arrives at L2, the fraught 30-day period when the 6.5 m primary mirror is unpacked and the tennis-court-sized sun shield unfurls goes without incident.
The telescope’s revolutionary technology will explore every phase of cosmic history—from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe to everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.
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