Washington, Dec 23:NASA confirmed that it will launch the James Webb Space Telescope early on Saturday morning from French Guiana.
“NASA, ESA [European Space Agency] and Arianespace confirmed a targeted launch date of Saturday, Dec. 25, for the James Webb Space Telescope,” NASA said in a press release on Wednesday.
There will be a 32-minute launch window starting at 7:20 a.m. Eastern Time in Kourou, French Guiana, the release said.
The launch was originally scheduled to launch on December 18, but it was delayed by four days to investigate the unanticipated release of a clamp band holding the highly sensitive instrument to its launch vehicle.
Unlike its predecessor, the Earth-orbiting Hubble telescope, the Webb will orbit the sun at a distance of about a million miles from Earth. From that position, the telescope will be able to explore every phase of cosmic history – from within our solar system to the most distant galaxies in the early universe, according to NASA.
(UNI)
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