James Webb telescope arrives at destination

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has reached its goal. NASA reports this in a blog post. The ten-billion-dollar space telescope was successfully positioned in orbit of the second Lagrange point, L2, on Monday afternoon. Lagrange Point 2 is located nearly 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

From its final orbit, it is expected to provide images from space in a few months. The goal is to use the successor to the Hubble telescope to better study the formation of the universe. It will be able to look deeper into space and thus further back into the past than its predecessor.

The JWST was launched into space on Dec. 25 from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 rocket. On the way to its destination, it performed several complex deployment maneuvers. Among other things, it had to deploy a sunshade sail the size of a tennis court and position 18 mirror elements.

Webb must cool down

Now the space telescope must cool down so that the onboard infrared instruments can function properly. That process is expected to take 98 days, NASA flight systems engineer Scarlin Hernandez confirmed in a live stream from the American Space Agency.

In addition, the telescope's optics must be properly aligned. That means the 18 hexagonal mirror elements must point in one direction with pinpoint accuracy, which will also take several months, she said.

Half a year of patience

It will therefore take another five months before the JWST can actually deliver the first images to Earth. These are expected in the summer. From then on, however, the James Webb Telescope will have a full schedule. Its first year of service is already booked with many observing tasks, says astronomer Dr. Amber Straughn in the same live stream.

As with its predecessor, the Hubble telescope, where the telescope will point its eye will be decided democratically at a time, she said. Straughn confirms that scientists from around the world can send in proposals. Then, he said, a democratic vote will be taken on which ones will be pursued. All the data collected by the space telescope will be available to the public.