Who here knows about James Webb Space Telescope of NASA? It was scheduled for launch in 2018 initially. However, the project fell victim to a series of delays on account of the complexity of the construction that the telescope required. The James Webb Space Telescope is actually the most intricate telescope to have been built ever.
The sheer number of parts that were needed and the requirement of making sure that everything was precisely right before the launch took place implied that the final date had to be pushed back more than once. All of this has paid off since the James Webb Space Telescope has completed its assembly and will soon be undergoing testing, eventually leading to the launching of the telescope as per reports.
The James Webb Space Telescope is going to be the successor to Hubble telescope. It features a five-layer sun-shield that prevents the infrared light from the sun, thus making sure that the delicate components housed within the telescope remain cool. The sun shield had already been installed on the spacecraft that will be launching the project. The telescope had to be lifted onto this combination by making use of a crane — a team of engineers aligned and secured the two halves together for completing this vital mechanical connection.
The next phase includes the engineers connecting the two halves electrically and then carrying out tests of electrical connections before the sun-shield is unfurled, followed by environmental and deployment testing. Gregory Robinson, the Webb program director at NASA Headquarters, said, ‘This is an exciting time to see now all Webb’s parts finally joined together into a single observatory for the very first time. The engineering team has accomplished a huge step forward, and soon, we will be able to see incredible new views of our amazing universe.’
The launch has been scheduled for 2021, and the telescope is set to investigate celestial bodies not just from our solar system but also the ones that are present in the distant galaxies.
