NASA has rescheduled the launch of James Webb Space Telescope to October 31, 2021. The launch was earlier scheduled for March 2021.
The space agency had confirmed last month that the March 2021 launch target was not possible due to the delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and other technical challenges.
NASA has announced the new launch window based on a recent risk assessment of the remaining integration and test activities before the launch, while also accounting for the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other technical issues.
Key Highlights
• The observatory’s testing continues at Northrop Grumman, the mission’s main industry partner in Redondo Beach, California, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19.
• The key factors that have pushed the launch date back include reduced on-site personnel, increased safety precautions, shift work disruption and technical challenges.
• The final set of complex environmental tests of the full observatory is expected to be completed this year followed by a final deployment of the telescope and sun shield.
• The James Webb Space Telescope is expected revolutionise the understanding of the universe. The observatory will help detect light from the first generation of stars and galaxies that formed in the early Universe and will study the atmospheres of habitable exoplanets.
NASA-ESA partnership
The European Space Agency (ESA) is contributing two critical scientific instruments- NIRSpec spectrograph and the MIRI mid-infrared instrument and the Ariane 5 launch vehicle to the Webb observatory. Besides this, a contingent of ESA scientists and engineers is supporting the observatory development and science operations.
Significance |
| • James Webb Space Telescope is set to become the first mission to complete an intricate and technically-challenging series of deployments during its journey to space. It will orbit about one and a half million kilometers from Earth. • The observatory will be folded in its launch configuration for shipment to the launch site and fitted inside the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. • Then it will unfold its delicate five-layered sunshield until it reaches the size of a tennis court. Then, the observatory will deploy its 6.5 m primary mirror equipment, which will help detect faint light of distant stars and galaxies. |
Background
The James Webb Space Telescope plans to be the next great space science observatory, after the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope will aim to build on Hubble’s success and pave the way for solving many more mysteries of our solar system, explore distant worlds around other stars and uncover the origins of the universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international project led by NASA in collaboration with its partners- the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
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