Over 30 years ago, the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Riccardo Giacconi, said, “it is time to start thinking about the next mission beyond the Hubble Space Telescope.” That was in 1989, before even the Hubble was launched.
The Webb telescope is the most powerful telescope ever built. It is a collaboration between NASA and its partners around the world, including the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Thousands of engineers, hundreds of scientists, over 300 universities, various organizations and companies from 29 U.S. states and 14 countries to bring us to July 11, when Webb’s first images will be revealed.
Webb launched on Dec. 25, 2021. Since that time, it has traveled over a million miles. After launch, some 178 release mechanisms had to function properly to perform 40 or so major deployments. It is said that Webb is the most complex scientific mission the Space Telescope Science Institute has ever done.
Webb is so powerful it will be able to see some of the faintest, oldest sources of light in the universe–light that took 13.6 billion light years to get here (traveling at 186,000 miles per second), roughly a couple hundred million years after the Big Bang! The vastness of space is mind-boggling.
A Fine Guidance Sensor test image from the Webb telescope, taken over a period of eight days at the beginning of May. (NASA)
At 5 p.m. Monday, July 11, President Biden will unveil one of Webb’s first images.
On Tuesday, July 12, more images will be released.
You can read more about the Webb telescope and its mission here.