Kourou: The world’s most powerful space telescope is set to explode at its outpost 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth on Saturday after several delays due to technical glitches.
James Web The space telescope, nearly three decades and billions of dollars in the making, will lift off Earth in its Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou Space Center in French Guiana.
The launch, scheduled in a brief window after 9:20 a.m. (1220 GMT), will send the telescope on a month-long journey into its distant orbit.
This is expected to provide new clues that will help scientists understand more about its origin. universe and Earth-like planets beyond our solar system.
in the name of a former NASA The director, Webb, follows in the footsteps of the legendary Hubble – but intends to show humans what the universe looked like even closer to its birth, some 14 billion years ago.
Web Project co-founder, speaking on social media John Mather Described the unprecedented sensitivity of the telescope.
“#JWST can see the heat signature of a bumblebee at a distance Moon,” They said.
All that power is needed to detect the faint glow emitted billions of years ago by the first galaxies to exist and the first stars to form.
The telescope is unequaled in size and complexity.
Its mirror measures 6.5 meters (21 ft) in diameter – three times the size of Hubble’s mirror – and is made up of 18 hexagonal squares.
It’s so big that it had to be folded to fit in the rocket.
That maneuver was laser-guided in which NASA implemented strict isolation measures to limit any contact with the telescope’s mirror from particles or even human breath.
Once the rocket web has carried 120 kilometers, the craft’s protective nose, called a “fairing”, is shed to lighten the load.
To protect the delicate equipment from pressure changes at that level, rocket-builder Arianespace installed a custom decompression system.
“Extraordinary measure for an extraordinary customer,” said a European Space Agency official in Kourou on Thursday.
The crew on the ground will know whether the first phase of the flight was successful about 27 minutes after launch.
Once it reaches its station, the challenge will be to fully deploy mirrors and a tennis-court-sized sun shield.
That complicated process would take two weeks if the web is to function correctly and it should be flawless.
Its orbit will be far beyond that of Hubble, which has been 600 kilometers above Earth since 1990.
The location of Webb’s orbit is called the Lagrange 2 point and was chosen partly because it would keep the Earth, Sun and Moon on the same side of its sun shield.
Web is expected to officially enter service in June.
James Web The space telescope, nearly three decades and billions of dollars in the making, will lift off Earth in its Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou Space Center in French Guiana.
The launch, scheduled in a brief window after 9:20 a.m. (1220 GMT), will send the telescope on a month-long journey into its distant orbit.
This is expected to provide new clues that will help scientists understand more about its origin. universe and Earth-like planets beyond our solar system.
in the name of a former NASA The director, Webb, follows in the footsteps of the legendary Hubble – but intends to show humans what the universe looked like even closer to its birth, some 14 billion years ago.
Web Project co-founder, speaking on social media John Mather Described the unprecedented sensitivity of the telescope.
“#JWST can see the heat signature of a bumblebee at a distance Moon,” They said.
All that power is needed to detect the faint glow emitted billions of years ago by the first galaxies to exist and the first stars to form.
The telescope is unequaled in size and complexity.
Its mirror measures 6.5 meters (21 ft) in diameter – three times the size of Hubble’s mirror – and is made up of 18 hexagonal squares.
It’s so big that it had to be folded to fit in the rocket.
That maneuver was laser-guided in which NASA implemented strict isolation measures to limit any contact with the telescope’s mirror from particles or even human breath.
Once the rocket web has carried 120 kilometers, the craft’s protective nose, called a “fairing”, is shed to lighten the load.
To protect the delicate equipment from pressure changes at that level, rocket-builder Arianespace installed a custom decompression system.
“Extraordinary measure for an extraordinary customer,” said a European Space Agency official in Kourou on Thursday.
The crew on the ground will know whether the first phase of the flight was successful about 27 minutes after launch.
Once it reaches its station, the challenge will be to fully deploy mirrors and a tennis-court-sized sun shield.
That complicated process would take two weeks if the web is to function correctly and it should be flawless.
Its orbit will be far beyond that of Hubble, which has been 600 kilometers above Earth since 1990.
The location of Webb’s orbit is called the Lagrange 2 point and was chosen partly because it would keep the Earth, Sun and Moon on the same side of its sun shield.
Web is expected to officially enter service in June.
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