SPACE
Page 14 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
January 3, 2022
Space telescope launched on daring quest to behold first stars
SUPERSCOPE. In this photo provided by NASA,
the James Webb Space Telescope is separated in
space on Saturday, December 25, 2021. NASA’s
James Webb Space Telescope soared from French
Guiana on South America’s northeastern coast, riding
a European Ariane rocket into the Christmas morning
sky. The $10 billion infrared observatory is intended as
the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope.
(NASA via AP)
By Marcia Dunn
The Associated Press
he world’s largest and most
powerful space telescope rocketed
away December 25 on a high-
stakes quest to behold light from the first
stars and galaxies and scour the universe
for hints of life.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope
soared from French Guiana on South
America’s northeastern coast, riding a
European Ariane rocket into the Christ-
mas morning sky.
“What an amazing Christmas present,”
said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science
mission chief.
The $10 billion observatory hurtled
toward its destination 1 million miles (1.6
million kilometers) away, or more than
four times beyond the moon. It will take a
month to get there and another five
months before its infrared eyes are ready
to start scanning the cosmos.
First, the telescope’s enormous mirror
and sunshield need to unfurl; they were
folded origami-style to fit into the rocket’s
nose cone. Otherwise, the observatory
won’t be able to peer back in time 13.7
billion years as anticipated, within a mere
100 million years of the universe-forming
Big Bang.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson called
Webb a time machine that will provide “a
better understanding of our universe and
our place in it: who we are, what we are,
the search that’s eternal.”
“We are going to discover incredible
things that we never imagined,” Nelson
said following liftoff, speaking from
Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. But he
cautioned: “There are still innumerable
things that have to work and they have to
work perfectly ... we know that in great
reward there is great risk.”
Intended as a successor to the aging
Hubble Space Telescope, the long-delayed
James Webb is named after NASA’s
administrator during the 1960s. NASA
T
partnered with the European and
Canadian space agencies to build and
launch the new 7-ton telescope, with
thousands of people from 29 countries
working on it since the 1990s.
With the launch falling on Christmas
and a global surge in COVID-19 cases,
there were fewer spectators at the French
Guiana launch site than expected. Nelson
bowed out along with a congressional
delegation and many contractors who
worked on the telescope.
Around the world, astronomers and
countless others tuned in, anxious to see
Webb finally taking flight after years of
setbacks. Last-minute technical snags
bumped the launch nearly a week, then
gusty wind pushed it to Christmas. A few
of the launch controllers wore Santa caps
in celebration.
“We have delivered a Christmas gift
today for humanity,” said European Space
Agency director general Josef Aschbacher.
He described it as a special moment, but
added: “It’s very nerve-racking. I couldn’t
do launches every single day. This would
not be good for my life expectancy.”
Cheers and applause erupted in and
outside Launch Control following Webb’s
flawless launch, with jubilant scientists
embracing one another amid shouts of “Go
Webb!” and signs that read: “Bon Voyage
Webb.”
Cameras on the rocket’s upper stage
provided one last glimpse of the
shimmering telescope against a backdrop
of Earth, before it sped away. “That picture
will be burned into my mind forever,”
Zurbuchen told journalists.
The telescope’s showpiece: a gold-plated
mirror more than 21 feet across.
Protecting the observatory is a wispy,
five-layered sunshield, vital for keeping
the light-gathering mirror and heat-
sensing infrared detectors at subzero
temperatures. At 70 feet by 46 feet, it’s the
size of a tennis court.
The sunshield opened three days after
liftoff, and took five days to unfold and lock
into place. Next, 12 days or so into the
flight, the mirror segments should open up
like the leaves of a drop-leaf table.
In all, hundreds of release mechanisms
need to work — perfectly — in order for the
telescope to succeed. Such a complex series
of actions is unprecedented — “like
nothing we’ve done before,” noted NASA
program director Greg Robinson.
“Now it’s our job to start from here and
keep going,” said Massimo Stiavelli, an
astronomer who heads the Webb mission
office at the Space Telescope Science Insti-
tute in Baltimore. The institute serves as
the control hub for Hubble and, now,
Webb.
The Hubble Space Telescope will be a
tough act to follow, according to Stiavelli
and retired astronaut-astronomer Steven
Hawley, even though Webb is 100 times
more powerful.
Hawley, in fact, is more stressed over
Webb than he was for Hubble, which he
released into orbit from space shuttle
Discovery in 1990. That’s because Webb
will be too far away for rescuing, as was
necessary when Hubble turned out to have
blurry vision from a defective mirror.
Spacewalking repairs by astronauts
transformed Hubble into a beloved marvel
that has revolutionized humanity’s under-
standing of the universe, casting its eyes
as far back as 13.4 billion years. It’s now up
to Webb to draw even closer to the Big
Bang 13.8 billion years ago, its infrared
vision keener and more far-reaching than
Hubble’s is in the shorter visible and
ultraviolet wavelengths.
NASA is shooting for 10 years of
operational life from Webb. Engineers
deliberately left the fuel tank accessible for
a top-off by visiting spacecraft, if and when
such technology becomes available.
“Hubble is like the perfect story. It starts
badly, then the cavalry fixes it, then it’s a
major success. It’s almost a Christmas
movie in a way,” Stiavelli said following
Webb’s liftoff. “It’s a high bar, but
hopefully the science contributions of
Webb will be up there.”
The Associated Press Health and
Science Department receives support
from the Howard Hughes Medical Insti-
tute’s Department of Science Education.
The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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