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

James Webb Space Telescope suffers another launch delay

Trevor Mogg
By

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope has been pushed to no earlier than December 22 following an incident that occurred as the observatory was being attached to the rocket that will carry it to space.

The space observatory — the most powerful of its kind ever built — was set to launch from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on December 18.

James Webb Space Telescope
After successfully assembling the entire observatory of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, technicians and engineers moved on to fully deploy and tension all five layers of its tennis court-sized sunshield, which is designed to keep its optics and sensors in the shade and away from interference. NASA/Chris Gunn

“Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket,” NASA explained in a message posted on Monday, November 22. “A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band — which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter — caused a vibration throughout the observatory.”

Recommended Videos

A NASA-led anomaly review board has been convened to investigate the incident, and additional testing will take place to check for any damage to the observatory. An update from NASA is expected at the end of the week once all of the tests have been carried out.

Related

It’s not the first delay to hit the James Webb Space Telescope. Development on the project began in 1996 with a launch date originally targeted for 2007. But various problems along the way — among them the coronavirus pandemic — saw several mission dates missed.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the result of an international collaboration between NASA, and the European and Canadian space agencies. Said to be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, the space-based observatory will perform a detailed exploration of everything from our own solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe. It’s hoped the mission will help us better understand the origins of the universe and our place within it.

The telescope features a 6.5-meter-diameter golden mirror made up of 18 hexagonal segments that will enable it to explore deep space in great detail. It also includes a tennis court-sized sunshield, which, like the mirror, will be folded for launch, with both sections automatically unfolding following deployment in space.

For a more in-depth look at the James Webb Space Telescope and the aims of the upcoming mission, take a look at this Digital Trends article explaining everything you need to know.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to watch homecoming SpaceX astronauts fly overhead on Tuesday
SpaceX's Crew-6 reentering Earth's atmosphere.

SpaceX’s Crew-7 astronauts undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:20 a.m. ET on Monday after a six-and-a-half-month stay aboard the orbital outpost.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico at around 5:50 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning. If the skies are clear, folks in more than a dozen states will be able to witness the crew’s homecoming as the capsule flies overhead.

Read more
The expansion rate of the universe still has scientists baffled
This image of NGC 5468, a galaxy located about 130 million light-years from Earth, combines data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This is the most distant galaxy in which Hubble has identified Cepheid variable stars. These are important milepost markers for measuring the expansion rate of the Universe. The distance calculated from Cepheids has been cross-correlated with a Type Ia supernova in the galaxy. Type Ia supernovae are so bright they are used to measure cosmic distances far beyond the range of the Cepheids, extending measurements of the Universe’s expansion rate deeper into space.

The question of how fast the universe is expanding continues to confound scientists. Although it might seem like a fairly straightforward issue, the reality is that it has been perplexing the best minds in physics and astronomy for decades -- and new research using the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope doesn't make the answer any clearer.

Scientists know that the universe is expanding over time, but what they can't agree on is the rate at which this is happening -- called the Hubble constant. There are two main methods used to estimate this constant: one that looks at how fast distant galaxies are moving away from us, and one that looks at leftover energy from the Big Bang called the cosmic microwave background. The trouble is, these two methods give different results.

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