The James Webb Space Telescope is in space. The European Ariane rocket carried the James Webb Space Telescope into the sky on Christmas morning. The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to cost $10 billion. NASA via AP
NASA's new space telescope is on the verge of completing the riskiest part of its mission after ground controllers fixed a pair of problems.
The sun shield on the James Webb Space Telescope is stretched tight as it is fully open. The operation should be done by Wednesday.
The $10 billion telescope was launched from French Guiana on Christmas Day. It had to be folded to fit into the Ariane rocket.
The sun shield is needed to keep the instruments at subzero temperatures and to look for signs of life in alien worlds.
Bill Ochs said that getting the sun shield extended was a huge achievement. The release pins were opened properly.
There have been some challenges.
Flight controllers in Maryland had to reset the solar panel. The observatory was never in danger because of the constant power flow, said Amy Lo, a lead engineer for the telescope's prime contractor.
The telescope was repointed to make it harder to see the overheating motors. If the problem crops up again, the process of securing the sun shield can be halted for three days.
"All is hunky-dory and doing well right now," she said.
The sun shield is going to be tightened.
He told reporters in a teleconference that the best thing for operations is to be boring.
The telescope's mirror could be in place as soon as this weekend.
By the end of January, it should be 1 million miles away. The telescope was more than half way there as of Monday. The first stars and galaxies formed in the universe 13 billion years ago, will be revealed by the telescope by the end of June. 100 million years after the universe-creating Big bang, that's how long it's taken.
Hubble peered back as far as 13.4 billion years ago. The gap is 100 times more powerful than the one that Astronomers hope to close.
Officials said Monday that they expect the vehicle to last well beyond the 10 years originally anticipated.
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