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After years of delays, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and several last minute postponements due to technical and weather issues, the James Webb Space Telescope launched into space in a flawless Christmas liftoff that has scientists overjoyed.
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science missions, said after the launch that it was truly Christmas with all the presents and everything.
The Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope was launched early Christmas morning. The launch team members, some wearing Santa hats and festive face masks, cheered as it soared into a cloudy sky. One shouted "Go, Webb, go!" on NASA TV.
The Christmas launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
James Webb Space Telescope has live updates.
The first image is the 2nd image is the 3rd image is the 4th image is the 5th image is the 6th image is the 7th image is the 8th image is the 9th image is the 10th image is the 11th image is the 12th image
The image is from the Arianespace.
The European Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope is going to be launched. The image is from the Arianespace.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space in December of 2021. The image is from NASA TV.
The Ariane 5 rocket carrying NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be launched on December 25, 2021, in the Jupiter Center at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The image is from NASA/Bill Ingalls.
The Ariane 5 rocket carrying NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be launched on December 25, 2021, in the Jupiter Center at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The image is from NASA/Bill Ingalls.
The James Webb Space Telescope deploys its solar array after leaving the Ariane 5 rocket. The image is from NASA TV.
The launch marks the beginning of the grand telescope's mission, as it still has to execute the most challenging sequence of deployment on its way to an orbital sweet spot some 930,000 miles away from Earth.
The Ariane 5 rocket, one of the world's most reliable, was able to deliver the best Christmas present to astronomy all over the world after everything fell together on the last day.
The Ariane 5 lifted off on time. The first stage of the Vulcain engine was launched at 9:20 a.m. local time. The Ariane 5, with its most precious and heaviest payload ever, then shot off towards the overcast sky of the French overseas territory at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Spectators could see a thick cloud of dust and the sound of a rocket engine in the sky.
Everything else followed exactly as planned.
The James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space in December of 2021. The image is from NASA TV.
After 27 minutes after liftoff, Arianespace flight controllers confirmed that the James Webb Space Telescope separated from Ariane 5's upper stage, prompting a round of applause from the gathered engineers and scientists. The Hubble Space Telescope's regular altitude was 800 km above Earth, but the James Webb Space Telescope's was 864 miles above it.
After traveling at a speed of over twenty thousand miles per hour (30 thousand kilometers per hour), it was time to head to the Lagrangian Point 2, a spot on the sun-Earth axis where the pull of Earth keeps the craft perfectly aligned with the two bodies.
A camera on board of Ariane 5's upper stage captured the final glimpse of the departing Webb, including the moment it unfurled its solar array; the first action in a series of complex deployment that has never been performed before. The sun's power gave the James Webb Space Telescope its own power.
NASA and the European Space Agency's officials were relieved despite Ariane 5's track record, despite the importance of the Christmas Day launch of the $10 billion Webb space telescope.
"This is the beginning of one of the most amazing missions that humanity has conceived," Zurbuchen said in the post-launch press conference. I'm excited to see what the next setup of this telescope will bring. This is what we can do when we come together as humans.
NASA chief Bill Nelson gave praise to the ground teams in Kourou and the thousands of engineers and scientists who worked on the James Webb Space Telescope mission.
Nelson said that this was a great day for planet Earth. You all have been amazing. You have produced a telescope that will take us back in time to the beginning of the universe. We are going to discover amazing things.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most complex mission ever conceived. The mission took over 30 years to get from the drawing board to the launch pad, stretching engineers and technologies to their limits.
The tense phase is still going on. The unfurling of the sun shield is the most nerve-wrecking part of the telescope's deployment sequence.
The procedure hinges on the successful release of 140 mechanisms, 70 hinge assembly, 400 pulleys, 90 cables, and eight deployment motors, all of which need to perform correctly for the sun shield to fully extend. The telescope won't work without it.
The mission's detectors need to be able to cool down to the ultracold temperature of minus 389 degrees Fahrenheit ( minus 217 degrees Celsius) in order to detect faint light coming from the most distant stars.
The primary mirror of the telescope will unfold over the next month before it reaches its destination.
Once there, it will take over 100 days for the spacecraft to cool down, and then the mirror segments will be aligned, so that the first images of the moon can be taken in the summer of 2022.
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