For two decades of innovative construction and after several setbacks, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is finally complete and being prepared to launch in 2018. 

NASA administrator Charles Bolden unveiled that James Webb Space Telescope is the NASA's new $8.8 billion Hubble space telescope. This will be a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins as JWST will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang.

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"Today, we're celebrating the fact that our telescope is finished, and we're about to prove that it works," announced by John Mather, Senior Project Scientist for the JWST at a news conference at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Seeing Beyond the Giant Leap

James Webb Space Telescope  is expected to bring a giant leap in our understanding of the universe with longer wavelength coverage of 0.6 to 28.5 microns and improved sensitivity as it has an operating temperature under 50 K.

JWST has total payload mass of approximately 6200 kg. It comes with 18 hexagonal mirrors. It is equipped with a 21-foot, gold-coated mirror that is calculated to use 48.25 g of gold that is almost equal to golf ball.array that can collect more light than Hubble in seven times much more. It can scan the infrared spectrum to see through dust.

James Webb Space Telescope can view 100 times larger than the Hubble and will be able to show us 13.5 billion years of universe history. It feautures major innovations such as lightweight optics, deploydable sunshield, folding segmented mirror, improved detectors, mirror control, and micro-shutters.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mission

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission goals are to search for the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang; to determine how galaxies evolved; to observe the formation of the stars and the planetary systems; to measure the physical and chemical properties of planetary system including our solar system; and to investigate the potential of life in those systems.

 This mission will last from 5 to 10 years.

James Webb Space Telescope is currently being tested in Goddard for rocket launch viability, and the next test will be on focus and final assembly. Once in space, the JWST will be 1.5 million km away from the Earth orbiting the Lagrange Point 2 for at least five years while researchers make observations.

James Webb Space Telescope was made possible through the combined efforts of NASA, the ESA, and the CSA. It will be launched in vehicle Ariane 5 ECA on October 2018. 

TagsJames Webb Space Telescope, NASA, Hubble Space Telescope, Universe, 2018