Astronomers are horrified by the possibility that something could go wrong during the launch of the space telescope, which has cost the agency $10 billion and more than 20 years to build, The New York Times reports.
University of New Hampshire physics professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein told the newspaper that she would watch the launch and be terrified the entire time.
The Ariane 5 rocket is set to launch from a European facility in French Guiana on December 22, the culmination of years of delays and massive budget overruns.
Engineers were already holding their breath after technicians encountered a heart-stopping "incident" last month while mounting the structure to the rocket's launch vehicle adapter, in a hiccup that ended up pushing back the telescope's launch even further.
Can't see.
Once it is in space, the telescope will have to deploy a giant mirror made up of several hexagonal mirror pieces, a process that will take six nail-biting and anxiety-inducing months to complete.
The entire astronomy community has skin in the game because of the broad range of anticipated science returns and discovery potential, according to a Yale astrophysicist. We are all invested.
The stakes were higher than that.
Cambridge University astronomer Martin Rees told the NYT in an email that a failure of the JWST would be disastrous for NASA.
Failure is an option. The space agency could be left with a dark mark if a disaster like that happened.
The space telescope could change our understanding of the early days of the universe, similar to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
The New York Times reported on why the world's Astronomers are anxious.
There is more on the telescope.
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