The past month has been exciting for the telescope. After launching on Christmas Day, the telescope spent the next few weeks installing its mirrors, checking the individual segments, and then maneuvering to L2, where it will spend the next ten to twenty years discovering the mysteries of the universe. The Chief Science Communications Officer (CSCO) for the Hubble Space Telescope will begin collecting light this summer according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
To mark the occasion, the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) captured images of James Webb to give people a sense of what it looks like. There is only a bright dot in the night sky. The Pale Blue Dot and The Day Earth Smile are both pictures of Earth taken by the same person.
The VTP was launched in Ceccano, Italy, in 2006 and is an advanced service. The VTP operates two remotely-accessible robotic telescopes. They offer public online observing sessions, live streams, expert commentary, and public outreach to people worldwide.
The image was taken on January 24th using Elena. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the JWST automatically and obtained a single 300-single unfiltered exposure that shows the telescope's position. The JWST was placed at a distance of over one million km from Earth when it was imaged.
The VTP created a short animation that shows the JWST's apparent motion against the stars. These images show a story of an ambitious mission that was decades in the making, and it looks like a tiny dot against a background of brighter dots. The telescope was supposed to be launched in 2007, with a budget of $500 million, but work began in 1996.
There were many delays and cost overruns because of a redesign, issues with the sun shield, and the Ariane 5 rocket that would launch it. Delays were imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the fact that the James Webb is the most complex and advanced space telescope ever conceived. It took extensive testing runs and small issues to be fixed in the telescope, which had to fold up to fit within a payload fairing.
The testing program had to be completed by the end of the year. By late 2021, the telescope testing was done, and the James Webb was shipped to French Guiana for integration with the Ariane 5 rocket. The launch went off without a hitch on Christmas Day. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science missions, commented, "It's truly Christmas with all the presents and everything and we have a space mission!"
The testing program had to be completed by the end of the year. By late 2021, the telescope testing was done, and the James Webb was shipped to French Guiana for integration with the Ariane 5 rocket. The launch went off without a hitch on Christmas Day. It is truly Christmas with all the presents and everything, and we have a space mission, according to NASA's associate administrator for science missions Thomas Zurbuchen.
The mission team is waiting for the telescope to reach operational temperature after the mission is at L2. The telescope's instruments, final testing, and calibration will follow. The first light of the James Webb will be collected by June 2022. As NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
“Webb, welcome home! Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb’s safe arrival at L2 today. We’re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can’t wait to see Webb’s first new views of the universe this summer!”
The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0.
