Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) finally completed work on the space telescope James Webb which will be a replacement Hubble telescope.
The James Webb telescope is the ‘sister’ of the Hubble space telescope which is quite old. NASA has completed testing and is ready to launch.
“Webb’s many tests and checkpoints ensure that the world’s most complex space science observatory will be operational,” NASA wrote CNET, Sunday (29/8).
The James Webb Telescope is a NASA project with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
The telescope is designed to investigate the mysteries of the origin of the universe and peer into the past of the formation of stars, planets and galaxies.
NASA said delivery of the James Webb telescope to the observatory would be completed in September. The journey will begin at Northrop Grumman in California.
After that through the Panama Canal to French Guiana in South America. James Webb is scheduled to be launched by the Ariane 5 Rocket on October 31.
The James Webb telescope is designed like origami and can travel to Earth orbit for nearly a million miles. The activity will begin about six months after launch if all goes according to plan.
NASA had postponed the launch of the James Webb telescope, which was originally planned for October 2018. At that time, the launch of the James Webb telescope was postponed due to technical problems and human error which resulted in budget swelling with an additional US$800 million in expenditure, from the initial estimated budget of US$8 billion.
Millionaires such as Yuri Milner, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk also answered this big challenge and started moving from personal funds that made them more flexible.
Hubble History
Quoted from the official site NASAThe Hubble team initially often solved space problems with a fairly old telescope built in the 1980s.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and has been operating for more than three decades.
In 2018, the Hubble telescope reportedly experienced a gyroscope failure. Engineers can basically fix the problem by giving the space telescope a sway.
However, when designing an instrument like the Hubble, it cannot be operated remotely and is difficult to physically access.
Hubble will most likely continue to orbit for a few more years, until eventually parts of it will wear out and eventually break down in orbit. But it is not known when that will happen.
Researchers hope that Hubble will contribute to science for at least a few more years.
(din / ayp)
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