The Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard will lift off from Europe's Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana on Saturday, December 25, 2011. The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to cost $10 billion. NASA via AP
On Saturday, the world's largest and most powerful space telescope rocketed away on a high-stakes quest to behold light from the first stars and galaxies and look for signs of life in the universe.
The European Ariane rocket carried the James Webb Space Telescope into the sky on Christmas morning.
The observatory traveled more than four times beyond the moon to reach its destination. It will take a month to get there and another five months before its eyes are ready to start looking at the stars.
The telescope's mirror and sun shield had to be folded to fit into the rocket's nose cone. The observatory won't be able to peer back in time to when the universe was just 100 million years old.
"It's going to give us a better understanding of our universe and our place in it: who we are, what we are, the search that's eternal," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said earlier this week.
He said that when you want a big reward, you have to take a big risk.
The James Webb Space Telescope is named after NASA's administrator during the 1960s. Thousands of people from 29 countries have worked on the new 7-ton telescope since it was built by NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies.
There were fewer spectators at the French Guiana launch site than expected due to the launch falling on Christmas and a global surge in COVID-19 cases. Nelson bowed out along with a congressional delegation and many contractors who worked on the telescope.
Astronomers around the world had been waiting for years to see a flight. The launch was pushed to Christmas because of last-minute technical issues. There were Santa hats in Launch Control. Cheers and applause erupted in the center after the flawless launch of Webb, with jubilant scientists embracing one another and repeating "Go Webb!"
Stephane Israel said that Arianespace would launch for humanity this morning. We will never see the skies in the same way after Webb.
The Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard will lift off from Europe's Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana on Saturday, December 25, 2011. The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to cost $10 billion. NASA via AP
The mirror is more than 21 feet across.
The sun shield is vital for keeping the observatory's heat- and light-gathering mirror and heat-sensed infrared detectors out of harms way. It's the size of a tennis court at 70 feet by 46 feet.
The sun shield will be opened three days after liftoff and will take at least five days to unfold and lock into place. The mirror segments should open up like leaves from a table, 12 days or so into the flight.
In order for the telescope to work, hundreds of release mechanisms need to work. Greg Robinson, NASA program director, said "Like nothing we've done before."
Steven Hawley released the Hubble from the space shuttle Discovery in 1990 but he is more stressed about the new space telescope, called the Telescope, than he was about Hubble. It was necessary when Hubble had blurry vision from a mirror that it be saved by a far away person.
The components of the James Webb Space Telescope are unfolding in this combination of images from an animation made by NASA. The nose cone of the Ariane rocket needed to be folded to fit into the big, folded-up, big, big, Webb. The NASA/goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab is a credit.
The Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard is seen at the launch pad. The James Webb Space Telescope can peer deeper into the universe, all the way to the first stars and galaxies. The rocket is from South America. Credit is given to Bill Ingalls/NASA.
The Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard is seen at the launch pad. The James Webb Space Telescope can peer deeper into the universe, all the way to the first stars and galaxies. The rocket is from South America. Credit: NASA via AP
Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard stands in the final assembly building ahead of the planned roll to the launch pad, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at Europe's Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in Kou. After years of delay, the James Webb Space Telescope is set to soar, and it will be able to see the light from the first stars and galaxies. Credit: NASA via AP
The main mirror assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope is being tested in a facility in California. The universe was formed 100 million years after the Big bang, so Webb will attempt to look back in time. Credit: NASA via AP
The components of the James Webb Space Telescope are unfolding in this combination of images from an animation made by NASA. The nose cone of the Ariane rocket needed to be folded to fit into the big, folded-up, big, big, Webb. The NASA/goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab is a credit.
The Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard is seen at the launch pad. The James Webb Space Telescope can peer deeper into the universe, all the way to the first stars and galaxies. The rocket is from South America. Credit is given to Bill Ingalls/NASA.
Hubble has cast its eyes as far back as 13 billion years, thanks to the work of astronauts who repaired the telescope. It's up to the man in charge of the telescope to get even closer to the Big bang, which was 13.8 billion years ago.
NASA wants to have 10 years of operational life from the project. If and when such technology becomes available, engineers left the fuel tank accessible for a top-off.
"I never would have believed that Hubble would still be going strong almost 32 years later, when he released it," said Hawley, who is now a professor at the University of Kansas. "I hope that in 32 years, we'll be able to say that JWST did as well."
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The space telescope was launched on a daring quest to behold 1st stars.
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