“The James Webb Space Telescope has been confirmed for its December 24 launch date,” the launch company tweeted
Paris:
The much-delayed launch of the James Webb Space Telescope will continue on Dec. 24, NASA and the company overseeing its launch on Saturday confirmed.
The project, begun in 1989, was originally expected to deploy the instrument — which will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space — in the early 2000s.
But multiple issues caused delays and a tripling of the telescope’s original budget with an eventual price tag of nearly $10 billion.
The Webb telescope was built in the US and shipped to its launch site in Kourou in French Guiana this year with a scheduled departure date of December 18.
However, new issues have resulted in two delays.
“The James Webb Space Telescope has been confirmed for its target launch date of December 24,” tweeted launch company Arianespace, adding that it would go ahead at 12:20 GMT that day.
NASA confirmed the launch date, tweeting that the telescope was “encased in its @Ariane5 rocket fairing”.
It follows in the footsteps of the legendary Hubble telescope, but will be placed much further from the sun. It is hoped that it will reveal what the universe looked like, even closer to its birth, nearly 14 billion years ago.
The new telescope is named after the late James E. Webb, who led the fledgling NASA space agency for much of the 1960s.
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