NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is seen during the encapsulation of the payload fairing prior to its installation aboard the Ariane 5 rocket for the December 24, 2021 launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. Photo: ESA-M Pedoussaut
HOUSTON, kilat.com – The newest flagship observatory NASA, The James Webb Space Telescope, will begin its journey in space.
The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch in Guyana, France, December 24, 2021, at 09:20 local time. The telescope has been packaged inside the Ariane 5 “nose” cone.
“Yesterday, the team at the launch site successfully completed the observatory’s encapsulation inside the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it into space,” NASA officials wrote in an update Saturday (12/18/2021).
The news comes as NASA and Arianespace, makers of Ariane 5, are working to fix a data cable issue that delayed the mission from its December 22 launch target.
Space.com said the final launch readiness review will be held Tuesday (21/12) to ensure the Webb space telescope is ready for launch. If ready, the Ariane 5 rocket will be launched to the launch pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana the next day.
NASA frames Webb as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This means that Webb has a great mandate to fulfill in the service of science.
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Hubble has done a great job, including finding new moons around Pluto. As well as helping build 3-D dark matter maps.
At a cost of $9.8 billion, the Webb space telescope is poised to take over after years of delays. Scientists hope the telescope will push further back in time.
The telescope will travel to a remote place about 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. This spot is known as the Lagrange point, a gravitationally stable spot between two celestial bodies.
There, away from interference by light from Earth, Webb will turn his attention to the early universe, to the atmospheres of exoplanets, and other sciences using a folding telescope nearly 21.6 meters wide, roughly three times the aperture of the 1990s. . For comparison, Hubble has an aperture of 2.4 meters.
With more openings available, Webb will gather more light and more detail on big goals,
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