NASA’s Webb Telescope Launches to See First Galaxies, Distant Worlds
KOUROU, French Guiana, December 25, 2021 (NASA PR) — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launched at 7:20 a.m. EST Saturday on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
A joint effort with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency, the Webb observatory is NASA’s revolutionary flagship mission to seek the light from the first galaxies in the early universe and to explore our own solar system, as well as planets orbiting other stars, called exoplanets.
“The James Webb Space Telescope represents the ambition that NASA and our partners maintain to propel us forward into the future,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The promise of Webb is not what we know we will discover; it’s what we don’t yet understand or can’t yet fathom about our universe. I can’t wait to see what it uncovers!”
Ground teams began receiving telemetry data from Webb about five minutes after launch. The Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket performed as expected, separating from the observatory 27 minutes into the flight. The observatory was released at an altitude of approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers). Approximately 30 minutes after launch, Webb unfolded its solar array, and mission managers confirmed that the solar array was providing power to the observatory. After solar array deployment, mission operators will establish a communications link with the observatory via the Malindi ground station in Kenya, and ground control at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore will send the first commands to the spacecraft.
Engineers and ground controllers will conduct the first of three mid-course correction burns about 12 hours and 30 minutes after launch, firing Webb’s thrusters to maneuver the spacecraft on an optimal trajectory toward its destination in orbit about 1 million miles from Earth.
“I want to congratulate the team on this incredible achievement – Webb’s launch marks a significant moment not only for NASA, but for thousands of people worldwide who dedicated their time and talent to this mission over the years,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Webb’s scientific promise is now closer than it ever has been. We are poised on the edge of a truly exciting time of discovery, of things we’ve never before seen or imagined.”
The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory will now begin six months of commissioning in space. At the end of commissioning, Webb will deliver its first images. Webb carries four state-of-the-art science instruments with highly sensitive infrared detectors of unprecedented resolution. Webb will study infrared light from celestial objects with much greater clarity than ever before. The premier mission is the scientific successor to NASA’s iconic Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, built to complement and further the scientific discoveries of these and other missions.
“The launch of the Webb Space Telescope is a pivotal moment – this is just the beginning for the Webb mission,” said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program director at NASA Headquarters. “Now we will watch Webb’s highly anticipated and critical 29 days on the edge. When the spacecraft unfurls in space, Webb will undergo the most difficult and complex deployment sequence ever attempted in space. Once commissioning is complete, we will see awe-inspiring images that will capture our imagination.”
The telescope’s revolutionary technology will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, to everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.
NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and others.
For more information about the Webb mission, visit:
Additional Webb Resources:
38 responses to “NASA’s Webb Telescope Launches to See First Galaxies, Distant Worlds”
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outstanding. what an adventure this can be (assuming all goes well which I Hope it does) RGO
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Its almost like Ballast Bill could barely read the words
The ESA sure can make a launch a snoozer.
I did like that part, “This will be humanity’s last view of the James Webb Space Telescope as it moves towards its [garbled] place about a million miles away from Earth.”
Well, good luck to the JWST team over the next month!
I hope it isn’t. I hope that a Mission Extension Vehicle can be sent out to dock with it and keep it going for many years, if all the other systems and such hold out.
That would be awesome for sure. One of the things I’ve never liked about James Webb is, considering it’s immense price, it’s limited lifetime.
If I had been in charge, I would have cancelled the scope when it was first revealed, upon a review of the program when a new Administration came in, that it had been mismanaged and was going to inevitably incur massive cost and schedule overruns. A ground breakingly large infrared space telescope that can peer back towards (perhaps at) the birth of the first stars is a great idea, but one that got out of control.
Nevertheless, it’s done and launched and I’m looking forward to us reaping a fantastic science reward over the coming years, preferably extended years if a servicing mission could be figured out
Hopefully by then there is going to be some type of capability to service it. If not Starship than Dragon or Orion.
lifetimes are fascinating. an IBM 5150 computer that has been running the repeater system since 82 more or less non stop (its probably been “off” less then two days since it turned on) finally failed. a couple of caps shorted out. the backup system kicked in immediately and switched to the standby…
anyway I recapped the board. and its back to running 🙂 electronics are amazing 🙂
I had a 386-DX40 with 8 meg of ram recording the RTTY stream from the UofA ham club. Ran Linux, and had an uptime of over 6 years before we finally noticed it was still running.
lol the board is pretty vintage (although the Hard drive is an SSD now but about 20 years ago I replaced the power supply with what was then a modern 500Watt in its own case…and about 10 years ago the last of the tube monitors just got to dim. so an 8 bit VGA card went in for an LCD monitor. my 11 year old is a bit of a computer wizard…she marvels at 8 bits 🙂
All kids should get exposed to 8/16 bit computing. Graduating to 16/24 systems when they’re in college. 8/16 systems can be understood by the human animal. Its where we should all start. Modern software writers are a bunch of ignorant rubes lost in the hinterlands of their illusory API’s.
mine started as a classroom project on an Arduino. and she still loves to program that. I agree precisely with what you are saying.
I got two trailers full of stuff (and some massive helical antennas from the U of NM which got out of the ATS business. what was fascinating to me is that the person who in the late 80’s put together their ALOHA link …1) she did it based on the HR (Harm radio) artticle I wrote of how I put my system together and 2) she works in the same building (or division we all homework) that I do now. I have never had a four bay VHF helical array but I do now :). almost have Katy’s system (the one she built while at NM back running. It should work great on Sat command 🙂
Impressive life extension work. My compliments to your daughter.
thanks….and yes she is a charger…as for the 5150 oh yes…stay safe my friend
I remember the 5150. It was a failed IBM experiment in proprietary personal computers that was quickly shoved aside by the original IBM PC. Hang onto that puppy. It’s probably already a rare and valuable antique.
JWST will go to a museum. Human eyes will collect photons that bounce off it again. This telescope is going to rock the foundation of cosmic evolution if it delivers on its promises. Cosmologists have extrapolated far too much into the past on so little information. There’s bound to be errors, fundamental errors. In the words of the late, great, Flounder “Oh boy this is this GREAT!”.
Flounder 🙂 a classis watch it once or so a month
yes I think both it an hubble will change a lot of things.. not the least of which is the notion that science knows no borders. it cost to much but it doubtless will be worth it. if of course it unfolds correctly which oddly enough I think it will 🙂
in the worlds of the late Great Oddball “I want positive waves from yuu baby nothing but positive waves” as he rubs heads
Oddball is the best. Need to watch Kelley’s Heroes and Animal House again soon!
that group was just perfect…not a bad actor in KH
” we have the game on ” 🙂
Yeah, that part surprised me. Cameras are so small, cheap, and low power these days, I’m surprised there aren’t one or two on it, if only for gee whiz images of the scope for the public. I really don’t think NASA and my fellow astronomers get it when it comes to public relations. You spend over $10 billion on something, you expect at least to be able to look at it every now and then.
I liked Nelson’s biblical reference (not shown in this video). His little speech was actually a pretty good one once it got rolling, but like a lawnmower that won’t start, it took him a while to get fully started and smoothly functioning.
When he first started speaking, I was like OMG. There’s a cadaver-like aspect to him, for sure
I guess he got better then 🙂 what was here was well a funeral home is missing a c….
I am so so glad this is on its way
The Boomers need to let go. Geriatric science is keeping them around longer.
Nelson isn’t a Boomer. He was born in 1942. He’s about the same age as the surviving Beatles and Stones.
Damned Gen-X whippersnappers! 🙂
Hahhaha. You got me!
this is a major weakness with both Biden and Trump, they are to old. we really need new people.
Well, the Democrats certainly do. Trump is still spry for a guy his age. But he is pushing 80 pretty hard. I don’t think he’ll be the GOP nominee in 2024. Biden, as is readily evident, has long since passed his “best if used by” date. The Democratic “leadership” in the Congress is uniformly Struldbrugian too. Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn in the House are 81, 82 and 81, respectively, while McCarthy and Scalise on the other side of the aisle are a quarter-century younger, both being 56 and, thus, leading-edge Gen-Xers. Leahy, Shumer and Durbin in the Senate are 81, 71 and 77, respectively. Their GOP opposite numbers are McConnell and Thune who are 79 and 60, respectively. So the Dem leadership averages 79 years of age and the Republican leadership averages 63.
Trump is worse then old, he is a liar a habitial one who will say and do anything to stay in the money of politics. he is slowly throwing the most extreme of his party to the side typical for him
its hard for me to know where Biden is going. he certainly is not moving all that fast for me…but…when we look back on things like FDR and Lincoln and even Washington who were dealing with times like these…they couldnt move as fast as post even it seemed obvious they needed to. the founders designed politics that way
its easy for the republicans…their changes in life are always simple…cut taxes and increase spending. and to do it for things like corporations which all politicians love
Biden is moving…and as I said maybe for all I know he is moving as fast asa possible
I just dont think Biden sees any advantage in moving the space program..he has done what he needed to do…which is blow the valve off of a “deadline” so now the program is drifting in teerms of dates and that alone will likely kill it. which is the goal
I dont think that the future is in lunar ops…although thats where the coalition of nations is headed
Trump lied about personal and inconsequential stuff like grabbing pussies. Biden lies about everything. But how much actually originates with him and how much with his shadowy handlers is certainly an open question. As senile as he is, it’s anybody’s guess whether he actual believes what he says or even understands it.
Biden’s agenda isn’t moving at all. Good thing too, as it seems to consist of the Dem usual – raise taxes and spend like drunken sailors on shore leave – plus all the racialist and intersectional tribalism and other wackadooodleness of the progressive hyenas. I think we’re looking at a bit less than another year of absolute gridlock before the Dems get swept out of Congress on a huge red wave.
I agree there is no momentum anent space in the Biden Residency. That’s okay. What is going on at Boca Chica – and, now, also at the Cape – will be far more dispositive of future U.S. manned spacefaring than anything the Bidenistas do on their uncertain watch.
The Artemis coalition has the scent of lunar regolith in its nostrils. If NASA doesn’t come through, SpaceX will. There will be beaucoup lunar ops in future, and Mars ops too. More than a few foreigners will quickly be involved in both. But SpaceX hardhats will outnumber them all.
Trump lies/lied about everything the trivial and the important. he lied over and over about the virus.
Actually Biden’s agenda is moving fairly well. the economy is booming.
Musk is going to spend the next 5 or so years trying to make Starship work. at the rate he is going and spending cash its a toss up how far he will get the thing before he tries to start deploying Starlinks with it. but he is sometime from a long lived vehicle with refueling etc. you folks act like its already here…but…
the long tent in the pole for a lunar landing is not SLS. I dont like the vehicle and you wont find me defending it. but they have spent a lot of money on it and its pretty clear to me it will work. Affordable is another issue but it will work
the long tent in the pole, is SpaceX lander AND American support to spend the dollars to get people on the Moon. there is no appetite for that really. thats why its already slid outside of this decade 🙂
What “lies” did Trump tell about the virus? He thought it serious enough to impose travel bans in early 2020 when Pelosi and then-Gov. Cuomo were still pooh-poohing it and urging tourists to come to their cities and see shows. He also ginned up a balls-to-the-wall vaccine development effort that yielded three results in less than a year. How many new vaccines have debuted on Biden’s watch?
The economy of the elites is booming. For we proles, though, there are rapidly rising food, gas and other prices because of the Biden-led inflation.
It isn’t going to take five years to make Starship work. I think Starships will be launching Starlinks by the end of next year.
There certainly is an appetite for lunar manned missions both here in the U.S. and elsewhere. Not, to be sure, within the current regime, but that will matter little as it will be effectively over in about a year. The exact timing of any first post-Apollo lunar manned effort will depend far more – perhaps even entirely – on SpaceX than on moribund NASA. That means it will happen by mid-decade or earlier.
A great Christmas present
for the nation, for the coalition and for mankind
Finally it is launched. I hope it all goes well and works correctly. I watched on NASA TV and I have problems understanding people with an accent. I usually just give up and don’t try. The team principle of Haas F1 racing I even have trouble understanding him. This ESSA rep was really bad.
Perhaps the Europeans aren’t playing to a U.S. audience? ESA is dominated by the French who conduct launches and commentary in their own language to a fairly considerable degree. Any English one hears is more a concession to fellow Europeans than to native speakers as English is pretty much the standard language used in ESA and the EU when representatives of multiple nations are involved. Everyone in Europe who is not a native English speaker speaks the language with an accent and they’re all used to that, one presumes.
I dont have much experience with the ESA but I do with European aviation agencies…most people who succeed in that group are multilingual. what makes it for me is that my german is pretty good, and gotten better…so that gets me into the crowd, they have of course serious translators handy but the ability to switch between english and either french or german or both is very helpful.
my oldest can play in both French and German (and when she needs to Russian…I can do that) and she walks around the European military structure like a knife through butter…the future
From my experience working in Western Europe over four decades ago, the degree of polylingualism in a given national population seems to be inversely proportional to that nation’s size and population. Geographically bigger countries have fewer polylinguals per 1,000 and they tend to speak fewer languages, though the big countries with small populations tend to have more polylingual citizenries, on average, than big countries with comparatively big populations. Within countries, polylingualism also tends to be concentrated in larger cities. Get out in the country in most of Europe and you won’t find much of anyone who speaks English or any other European language but their native one except in border areas. Thus, a lot of Scandahoovians speak multiple languages as do a lot of Belgians, Dutch and Swiss. Germans, not nearly so much. The same for Italians as they are not big travelers as are the Germans.
thats not my experience in Germany or Italy.
If so, then things have changed a lot in both places since the late 70s.