NASA is going ahead with the launch of its James Webb Space telescope finally and everyone is looking forward to it. The launch has been delayed several times and now it is finally here. It will take place on December 24.
The project originally began in 1989 and had to be launched in the early 2000s. It was supposed to be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space.
Since then, there have been extreme delays in the launch. The original budget of the project has tripled now, and it has reached almost US$10 billion (8.8 billion euros).
The Webb telescope was built in the US and transported to its launch site in Kourou in French Guyana this year with a planned date of departure of December 18.
“The James Webb Space Telescope is confirmed for the target launch date of December 24,” tweeted launch company Arianespace, adding that it would go ahead at 12:20 GMT (12:20 UTC) on that day.
NASA tweeted that the telescope “encapsulated inside its @Ariane5 rocket fairing”.
It will serve as an addition to the services provided by the Hubble telescope. However, it will be located much further from the sun. It is expected that it will provide information on how the Universe looked even closer to its birth nearly 14 billion years ago.
The new telescope is named after the late James E. Webb, who ran the fledgling NASA space agency for much of the 1960s.