James Webb is Ready to Launch

Hello fellow space enthusiasts! Merry Christmas (almost) It has been a while, but there has been a lot. First off, the James Webb space telescope is going to launch on the 25th at 5:20 AM (Mountain time)!

The James Webb space telescope is a cutting-edge space telescope designed to replace the Hubble telescope and see even further into space. Hubble (a very famous telescope that can look closely at stars) was launched in early 1990, with technology from 1990. This means we can deeply improve our technology now that Hubble is finally showing its age; using more energy, losing control, and having non-functioning instruments. The Webb telescope is a new era in exploration, allowing us to see farther into the depths of space with newer and more efficient technologies. It achieves this by being launched on the Ariane 5, an accomplished launcher that can take very heavy payloads into very high and precise orbits. The telescope is going to a precise point in space, called L2 (Lagrange point 2), a spot where the gravity of the earth and the tidal forces of the moon cancel eachother out and a stable point is formed. Once the rocket has launched into L2, it deploys a sun shade to block the sun from the optics, unfolds the mirror, and extends the secondary mirror on a boom. The unfolding can be seen below.

The unfolding sequence of the Webb telescope.

The James Webb telescope was named after, well... James Webb. He was the second NASA administrator, famed scientist, and a very important role in the Apollo program.

James Webb

The telescope will launch on December 25, at 5:20 AM Mountain Time. This can be viewed on the official channel, or on Everyday Astronaut's channel for commentary and fun facts.

That is all for today, so thank you for joining me!

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