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Webb Space Telescope launch postponed due to an unforeseen incident

The start of the James Webb Space Telescope has delayed launch preparations by several days after an incident. The new planned start date is December 22 of this year.

The incident occurred while preparing to mount the telescope on a special adapter that connects it to a Ariane 5 missile connects. The sudden, unplanned release of the latch securing Webb to the adapter caused vibrations to pass through the telescope, reported the NASA. A press release said it happened during the works, for which the French company Arianespace is wholly responsible. The company has been tasked with launching the telescope, which will launch from French Guiana.

 Image source: Wikipedia / Which

A special team led by NASA is currently investigating how the incident came about and is conducting tests to see if any parts of the telescope have been damaged. The telescope is on the one hand a very sensitive device, but on the other hand it is also extremely robust.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful telescope ever built for use beyond Earth. It can observe the first stars and galaxies. It works in Infrared range, because the further away the objects are from us, the more the light they emit shifts into the red area on the way to earth.

In the meantime, NASA is already planning to build another space telescope that will be much larger than Webb.