Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope delayed until Christmas eve

By

NASA has announced that the launch of its next-generation telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, has been delayed until Christmas eve due to a communication issue between the telescope and its rocket. The construction and launch of the telescope have suffered repeated delays, due in part to the extreme complexity of the telescope and its systems. Once launched, it will be the world’s most powerful space observatory and will be the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

“The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system,” NASA wrote in a brief statement this week. “This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, December 24.”

NASA technicians lift the James Webb Telescope, using a crane, and move it inside a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is the most powerful space telescope ever built.
NASA technicians lift the James Webb Telescope, using a crane, and move it inside a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The scientific successor to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is the most powerful space telescope ever built. NASA/Desiree Stover

Thomas Zurbuchen, the Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, has been providing further updates on the status of the telescope and its launch preparations on Twitter.

Related

On Thursday, December 16, he shared an update: “Just in from the Webb launch site: The team has fixed the connection issue and @NASAWebb is in the midst of its final scheduled aliveness test before launch.”

Further confirmation came yesterday, Friday, December 17, when Stéphane Israël, CEO of launch provider Arianespace, wrote that, “Final encapsulation operations ongoing,” and that the team would “Need a few more hours to complete them.”

Israël also confirmed that the targeted launch date is December 24 at 12:20 a.m. UTC (7:20 p.m. ET or 4:20 p.m. PT on December 23), with final confirmation of this date expected today, Saturday, December 18.

It is not only the launch of the telescope which is complicated. The deployment of the telescope is highly complex as well, as it must perform operations such as unfolding its tennis court-sized sunshield which will protect the delicate electronics on board from the heat of the sun. The sunshield is designed in an origami-type stye in order to fold up and fit within the rocket.

“In the 29 days after liftoff, thousands of parts must work correctly, in sequence, to ensure that Webb can unfold into its final form,” NASA writes. “And as all of this takes place, Webb will fly through the expanse of space to a destination nearly one million miles away.”

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
James Webb images capture the galactic winds of newborn stars
A team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to survey the starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82), which is located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. M82 hosts a frenzy of star formation, sprouting new stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way galaxy. Webb’s infrared capabilities enabled scientists to peer through curtains of dust and gas that have historically obscured the star formation process. This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument shows the centre of M82 with an unprecedented level of detail. With Webb’s resolution, astronomers can distinguish small, bright compact sources that are either individual stars or star clusters. Obtaining an accurate count of the stars and clusters that compose M82’s centre can help astronomers understand the different phases of star formation and the timelines for each stage.

A stunning new pair of images from the James Webb Space Telescope show a new view of a familiar galaxy. Messier 82 is a famous starburst galaxy, full of bright and active star formation, and scientists are using Webb to study how stars are being born in the busy conditions at the center of the galaxy.

Astronomers used Webb's NIRCam instrument to observe the galaxy, and by splitting the resulting data into shorter and longer wavelengths, you can see different features which are picked out in the bustling, active region where stars are forming.

Read more
NASA, Boeing delay Starliner’s first crewed flight again
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. Boeing / Boeing

The first crewed test flight of Boeing Space’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft has been delayed yet again, but this time it’s not the result of an issue with the vehicle itself.

Read more
Meet NASA’s trio of mini moon rovers set to launch next year
Part of NASA’s CADRE technology demonstration, three small rovers that will explore the Moon together show off their ability to drive as a team autonomously – without explicit commands from engineers – during a test in a clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in December 2023.

NASA is ramping up its plans for exploring the moon, not only in terms of preparing to send astronauts there but also rovers. There's the VIPER rover, which will search for water around the lunar south pole, and now NASA is introducing a trio of mini rovers called CADRE, or Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration. These will work together as a team to map the lunar surface, testing the possibilities of using rovers in groups for future exploration.

The rovers, developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, are just the size of a carry-on suitcase. They are designed to move independently but share data so they can cover more ground than a single rover could. They'll have to work over a lunar day, which is about two weeks, to map out features on the surface and look below ground using radar.

Read more