WEB DESK – NASA has confirmed that the James Webb space telescope will be launched on December 24.
The telescope was originally scheduled to be launched into space in the early 2000s.
The new telescope is named after the late James E. Webb, who ran NASA during the 1960s.
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 Webb telescope was built in the US and transported to its launch site in Kourou in French Guyana this year with a planned date of departure of December 18.
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. Now, it seems, the launch is set for December 24.
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.
