This Christmas, the science community will be getting a gift that has been delayed many times: the James Webb Space Telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope was supposed to be launched in 2007. All systems seem to be ready to go after 14 years.
New NASA photos show the telescope on the launchpad.
Bill Ingalls is a NASA engineer.
NASA assures us that the space telescope will ride into space on the Ariane 5 rocket, even though it isn't visible in this photo.
The Arianespace ELA-3 launch complex in French Guiana is where NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has arrived, according to an update from NASA.
The launch of the JWST is scheduled for December 25th. We'll be watching and posting as soon as we know the launch has happened.
You can watch us on the NASA livestream.
The next step will be for the team to run through all the electrical diagnostics to make sure everything is ready for launch. We wait and hope for the best.
Let's rock and roll!
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The launch vehicle and the telescope are on their way to the launch pad. The process will take about two hours. The launch is set for December 25th at 7:21 am.
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December 23, 2021.
The telescope has a primary mirror that is 21 feet in diameter and 18 gold-plated segments that will be folded into the nose cone for launch.
A lot of people will be holding their breath during the launch. The mission has been called the most expensive gamble in history.
After a 29-day journey, Ariane5 will drop the telescope into a position 1.5 million kilometers from our planet.
Hubble works in both optical and ultraviolet wavelength, while the telescope works in the other way around. This means that the JWST will be able to pick up things that Hubble can't see.
If the bumblebee was as far away as the Moon, the heat signature of it would be detected by the JWST.
We can't wait to learn from the things we'll learn from JWST.
Good luck, small telescope. We're rooting for you.
