There is also evidence of his participation in US Senate discussions that ultimately led to anti-LGBTQ federal policy. There is archival evidence that Webb knew of this policy and that it was forcing LGBTQ civil servants out of the government, ending careers and destroying lives in the process. James Webb was the NASA administrator during the 1960s Apollo program, but before that, he was undersecretary of the US State Department in the 1950s, and has been accused of acquiescing to and enforcing the then-US Government policy of LGBTQ persecution, which eventually culminated in the 'Lavender Scare', one of the darkest episodes in recent US history. Many activists, scientists, and NASA personnel are upset about the naming of the telescope. I don't want to leave things off without talking about some of the controversy around the James Webb Space Telescope. The fact that everything went off without a hitch is a testament to human ingenuity, and it never fails to impress the hell out of me every time I watch a successful rocket launch. The James Webb Space Telescope is an incredibly delicate scientific instrument, with it's five sunshield panels being about the thickness of a human hair and covering an area the size of a tennis court, its folded 21.5-foot-tall primary mirror, and any number of instruments on board that can get knocked loose by literally riding a rumbling stream of fire against the force of gravity into outer space. Launching stuff into space is hard work, and sometimes we forget that because engineers make it look so damn easy, but it's really not. It might be a some months before we learn whether Webb is truly successful, but there's no doubt that the first stage of its mission was a success and a genuine feat of human engineering in its own right. Understandably, there is a lot of celebration going on right now. How it will all turn out remains to be seen, but its off to a good start. That will be a heartbreaking moment after so much work and anticipation, but science is a story of heartbreak as well as triumph. If something like that happens with Webb, there won't be much we can do but maybe try again. It wasn't until Hubble first started taking images that we realized that its mirror hadn't been ground properly and that there were spherical aberrations on the images. This, of course, will be Webb's real test. The first stage of Webb's deployment has been successful, and now it begins its '29 day on the edge', as NASA calls it.Īssuming everything goes as planned, it will take several months for the James Webb Space Telescope to cool down sufficiently for it to start snapping images of the universe in deep infrared.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been successfully been inserted into orbit and we have confirmation that its solar array is providing power to the telescope.

The 29 days until Webb completes its maneuvers and deploys at L2 will be some of the most intense and stressful time in recent memory for NASA, possibly since we first sent astronauts to the Moon in 1969.Īnd it all begins in just a few hours, and we'll be here to keep you updated on the entire launch and deployment as it happens. Here, the larger universe will be far more visible to Webb than if it was located in low Earth Orbit like the Hubble Space Telescope, but it is also a far more complex deployment than Hubble was.Įssentially, if something physically goes wrong during the deployment, there's no way to recover and the $10 billion dollar instrument will be effectively useless. The oldest galaxies and stars from the very beginning of the universe can only be seen in this deep infrared space, so there's no telling what we'll see once Webb is online and operational.Īfter its successful launch, it will take 29 days for Webb to fully deploy at the second Lagrange point relative to Earth and the Sun, known as L2, a location about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from us. Built to detect deep into the infrared spectrum, the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to see deep into the history of the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope is the next generation observation platform and the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Today is launch day for the James Webb Space Telescope aboard Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket, and we're covering all the latest updates as the mission counts down to its anticipated 7:20AM EST lift off.

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