The Ariane 5 launch vehicle has been launched from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana with the latest James Webb space telescope. The broadcast on December 25 is hosted by Arianespace.
The launch took place at the estimated 15:21 Moscow time. The warhead with the James Webb Orbiting Telescope has already detached.
Ariane 5 will bring the telescope into orbit. After that, the telescope will move for four weeks to its destination at the second Lagrange point. This point is four times farther from the Earth than the Moon, at a distance of 1.5 million km on the side opposite to the Sun.
The launch was planned for December 18, but was postponed several times.
James Webb is a joint project of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The telescope will study the oldest stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang and search for potentially habitable planets. Estimated service life – 10 years.
Earlier, on October 3, NASA completed design and development work on the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope. Before the launch of the mission, which will take place no later than May 2027, the assembly of the device will take place.
The telescope will be launched into space by the launch vehicle Delta IV Heavy. Nancy Grace Roman will operate in a halo orbit around the second Lagrange point in the Sun-Earth system for five years. It is noted that the 288-megapixel camera of the device has a field of view 200 times larger than that of the Hubble telescope. This will allow for the highest level of detail in the images.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
