After decades of delays and billions of dollars spent, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is facing even more problems ahead of its launch, and this time it appears to be human error.
The structure was being mounted to the Ariane 5 rocket's launch vehicle adapter.
The very last thing anyone wants to hear when it comes to a structure that features an array of mirrors is a NASA update that says a sudden release of a band that secures the launch vehicle to the observatory caused a vibration.
The launch of the massive space telescope was pushed back to December 22 to allow for additional testing.
NASA says it will release an update by the end of the week, but it is still unclear if the observatory was damaged.
There are more delays.
The original plan was for the James Webb to be launched on December 18 from the Arianespace launch site in French Guiana.
The telescope has been in development for over two decades and has been pushed back many times. NASA blamed the COVID-19 Pandemic for further delays.
The launch is less than a month away and this week's incident couldn't have come at a worse time.
Hope that the massive structure survived and that NASA can finally move on is all we can do.
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said on Monday that he was confident that the team would do everything they could to prepare for the mission.
He said that the observatory is going to unfold the universe in ways that are unimaginable. This step is worth the wait.
There was an incident with the James Webb Space Telescope.
There are videos showing the unboxing of the James Webb Space Telescope.
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