Launch and commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope
Beginnings of the infrared astronomical observatory / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed primarily to conduct infrared astronomy. Its complex launch and commissioning process lasted from late 2021 until mid-2022.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's development in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), beginning in the late 1990s. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
The launch (designated Ariane flight VA256) took place as scheduled at 12:20 UTC on 25 December 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket that lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.[1][2] Upon successful launch, NASA administrator Bill Nelson called it "a great day for planet Earth".[3] The telescope was confirmed to be receiving power, starting a two-week deployment phase of its parts[4] and traveling to its target destination.[5][6][7] A six-month commissioning phase followed of testing and calibrating scientific instruments, culminating in the first scientific results being publicly shared in July 2022. The telescope's nominal mission time is five years, with a goal of ten years.[8] An L2 orbit is unstable, so JWST needs to use propellant to maintain its halo orbit around L2 (known as station-keeping) to prevent the telescope from drifting away from its orbital position.[9] It was designed to carry enough propellant for 10 years,[10] but the precision of the Ariane 5 launch and the first midcourse correction were credited with saving enough onboard fuel that JWST may be able to maintain its orbit for around 20 years instead.[11][12][13] Space.com called the launch "flawless".[14]