Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Webb space telescope launch delayed: NASA
ADVERTISEMENT

Kourou, Dec 15 (AFP) Dec 15, 2021
The launch of the James Webb space telescope scheduled for December 22 won't take place before December 24, NASA announced on Wednesday.

The NASA project, launched in 1989, was originally expected to deploy in the early 2000s.

But multiple problems forced delays and a tripling of the telescope's original budget with a final price tag of nearly 10 billion dollars (8.8 billion euros).

Webb was built in the US and transported to its launch site in Kourou in French Guyana this year, where its launch date of December 18 was already pushed back after an incident.

This time a communication problem is to blame.

"The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system," a brief update on the NASA website reads.

"This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24."

European Space Agency officials told AFP the problem was discovered after the telescope was installed on the Ariane 5 rocket on Saturday.

All the tests had to be run again to make sure everything was still working.

The Webb telescope, named after a former director of the American space agency, will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space.

It follows in the footsteps of the legendary Hubble but will be located much further from the sun. It is hoped that it will show humans what the Universe looked like even closer to its birth nearly 14 billion years ago.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Final Voyage Delayed: ULA Postpones Last Delta IV Heavy Launch with Classified NRO Payload
Japan Moon probe survives second lunar night
Europe space telescope's sight restored after de-icing procedure

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Revolutionizing Particle Physics: AI's Role in Deciphering Complex Particle Paths
UC San Diego Scientists Unveil Plant-Based Polymers that Biodegrade Microplastics in Months
Cambridge working to unlock new solar energy pathways

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
AI generates high-quality images 30 times faster in a single step
Aerospacelab and Xona Unite to Transform Satellite Navigation
GITAI's robotic system triumphs in ISS demo

24/7 News Coverage
'Just staggering': UN says households waste 1 bn meals a day
Neolithic Mariners: Unveiling the Mediterranean's Oldest Boats
Greece to buy seven Canadian water bombers for wildfires


All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.