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NASA is counting down towards a Christmas Eve launch for its biggest space telescope ever and you can watch it all live online. The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to NASA and Europe’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope. The next-generation capabilities of the upcoming observatory, paired with the laundry list of mission delays over … Read more
Editor’s Note: This story was published in September. Since then, the launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been delayed again. It is now scheduled to lift off no earlier than December 24. Earlier this month NASA announced that on December 18, after years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope will finally leave Earth on a … Read more
Randy Kimble will never forget the days in August 2017 when Hurricane Harvey battered Texas. As a project scientist for integration, test and commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), he had no option to hide at home. The giant telescope, at that time already 10 years behind schedule and considerably over budget, was … Read more
When the immense sound of the Ariane 5 rocket rumbles across Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, it will signal the end of a journey decades in the making. Perched atop the rocket will be the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most sophisticated and complex observatory ever constructed. An enormous mirror 6.5 meters across, … Read more
James Webb (Image credit: NASA) The James Webb Space Telescope is named for James Webb, who was NASA’s second administrator, in office from 1961 until 1968. Although he is most commonly associated with the Apollo program that sent humans to the moon for the first time just after his tenure ended, Webb also supported the … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope will rest in space at Lagrange Point 2, a spot directly behind Earth from the sun’s perspective. There, the instrument will make powerful observations of far-off celestial bodies; the telescope’s infrared view will be able to penetrate interstellar dust. (Image credit: Northrop Grumman) The James Webb Space Telescope could help … Read more
The much-delayed launch of the James Webb space telescope will go ahead on December 24, NASA and the company overseeing the launch confirmed on Saturday. The project, begun in 1989, was originally expected to deploy the instrument – which will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space – in the early … Read more
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is currently poised to launch and become the most powerful telescope in space. But how will its photos compare to Hubble’s? The Hubble Space Telescope launched into low Earth orbit in April 1990. Over the three decades since, the famous observatory has expanded our view of the cosmos and held … Read more
NASA’s newest flagship observatory is about to begin an incredible journey and now has an official launch date. The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch in a week, on Dec. 24 at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT or 9:20 a.m. local time in French Guiana), and has been packed up inside the nose … Read more
Comet Leonard spent the first couple of weeks of December visible as a target for observers with binoculars and telescopes in the early morning sky before sunrise. Now, however, the viewing venue has changed and the newfound Comet Leonard (cataloged as C/2021 A1) has moved into the evening sky, visible low above the southwestern horizon … Read more