The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which astronomers say will usher in a new era of discovery, has been postponed from Dec. 18 to Dec. 22 after an “incident” on the platform in French Guiana, NASA reported on Monday. .
Technicians were preparing to attach the James Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, used to insert the $10 billion telescope into the top of an Ariane 5 rocket.
“A sudden unexpected detachment of a fastening ring, which secures the Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, caused a vibration through the observatory”, explained the US space agency, noting that the incident occurred while operations were being carried out “under the general responsibility of the Arianespace”.
Arianespace is a French company, contracted to launch the telescope.
A NASA investigation aims to determine how it happened and tests are carried out to “determine with certainty that the incident did not damage any components”.
The telescope will orbit the Sun, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, far beyond the limits of its older brother, Hubble, which has operated at an altitude of 600 kilometers since 1990.
Scientists want to use the James Webb telescope, the largest and most powerful ever built, to look back in time more than 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies formed, 100 million years after the Big Bang.
Touted as the successor to Hubble, the JWST was built in the United States, under the direction of NASA, and incorporates instruments from the space agencies of Europe (ESA) and Canada (CSA).
One of its main features is its ability to detect infrared, as when light from the first objects reaches our telescopes, it has shifted to the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum as a result of the expansion of the universe.
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