NASA announced Wednesday that the launch date for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has been changed to December 18th. This is humanity's next major space-bound eye in the cosmos. This is the latest delay in a telescope originally scheduled to launch to space in 2007.
Named after NASAs second administrator and costing $8.8 million, the observatory is a tennis court-sized replacement to NASAs famous Hubble telescope. The spacecraft's 18 hexagonal, gold-plated mirrors will enable it to view distant planets as well as the far reaches beyond the reach of Hubbles telescopes.
The launch of the telescopes has been a long-awaited event for astronomers. However, it has been delayed many times, faced with development problems and costly overruns. NASA and Northrop Grumman (the prime contractor for the telescopes), initially set a budget of $1 billion for James Webb, and a launch date for somewhere in 2007. The launch date was moved to 2018 in 2011, but this was further delayed by development accidents. NASA's inspector general predicted delays last year due to a few technical problems. The pandemic caused additional delays, pushing the launch date back to October 31st.
This latest delay was not caused by the telescope. James Webb's Ariane 5 rocket was grounded for almost a year because of problems with the payload fairings. These issues were discovered in two separate commercial missions in 2020. In July, the rocket launched a number of satellites. The European Space Agency NASAs partner in the telescope also signed off on James Webb's new launch plan. This was in response to a key review that had shown positive results during technical evaluations.
NASA announced the new date in consultation with Arianespace (French company that owns the Ariane 5 rocket which will launch James Webb into space from Kourou, French Guiana). This launch site is managed by the European Space Agency. The joint project of NASA, ESA and Canada's space agency, the observatory is now undergoing shipping operations. Before the spacecraft is sent to Kourou, engineers will wrap it in a very special (and expensive) shipping container.
Although it has now been given a new launch date, details regarding the exact time the spacecraft will set sail for South America are still being kept secret as a security precaution.
