Christmas Launch of Webb Space Telescope
Hubble’s successor
The Webb Telescope is the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The $9.7-billion space telescope has been under development for decades. It has undergone many delays over its long history.
The Webb will go up on an Ariane 5 rocket, a tried-and-true vehicle with a streak of 82 consecutive successful launches between April 2003 and December 2017. The Ariane 5 is part of the European Space Agency’s contribution to the mission. The launch will take place at Europe’s spaceport located in French Guiana. Then, according to many observers, the real nail-biting will begin as the telescope begins a month-long unfolding process, all the while traveling farther, and farther, from Earth.
In summer 2021, NASA had announced that the telescope would ship to the launch site in August “with little to no schedule margin.” That tight schedule would bring the telescope to launch readiness no earlier than October 31. A new launch date of December 18, 2021, was announced in September. But delays kept occurring.
Following launch, the telescope will require about a month to travel to L2, the second Lagrangian point, a point located at some four times the moon’s distance.
>...capturing the light from the very beginning of the creation
posted this a couple times since the launch, but this anon found NASA Administrators address after the launch quite interesting...
