Space News & Blog Articles

The James Webb Space Telescope’s five-layer sunshield, seen here during ground testing at Northrop Grumman’s factory in Redondo Beach, California. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Mission controllers started the delicate work of tightening the five razor-thin layers of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshade Monday. Managers said the nearly $10 billion observatory is “hunky-dory” after pausing deployments over the weekend to adjust the observatory’s power levels and ensure motors needed for the tensioning are in tip-top shape.

File photo of a stack of Starlink satellites before a previous mission.. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX plans to kick off its 2022 launch schedule with a Falcon 9 rocket flight Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the company’s next group of Starlink internet satellites.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

An Angara A5 rocket lifts off Dec. 27 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense

The third test launch of Russia’s heavy-lift Angara A5 rocket Dec. 27 was marred by an upper stage failure that stranded a dummy payload in a low orbit.

Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope with one half of its sunshield deployed. Credit: NASA

Flying outbound from Earth at a distance of more than 400,000 miles, the James Webb Space Telescope extended one of two booms Friday to begin unfurling the mission’s five-layer sunshield. With the port-side boom deployed, work is underway tonight to extend another boom on the starboard side.

JWST’s sunshield deployment during a ground test at Northrop Grumman. Credit: NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope opened covers that protected the mission’s folded sunshield Thursday, and deployed a momentum flap to help the observatory balance against the unending light pressure from the sun.

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifts off Dec. 27 with 36 OneWeb satellites. Credit: Roscosmos

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched Monday with 36 more OneWeb internet satellites, the 12th of 19 Soyuz missions needed to deliver into orbit the company’s first-generation network of nearly 650 spacecraft.

A Long March 7A rocket lifts off Dec. 23 from the Wenchang space center. Credit: CASC

China launched two classified Shiyan satellites Dec. 23 into a geostationary transfer orbit aboard a Long March 7A rocket, one of the country’s newest launch vehicles. The mission took off from China’s Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island.

Artist’s illustration of Webb’s configuration as of Dec. 29, with its Deployable Tower Assembly extended. Credit: NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope extended a four-foot tower Wednesday to give the observatory’s mirrors and instruments, designed to function at cryogenic temperatures, enough separation from the hot side of the spacecraft after the mission’s sunshield deploys over the next few days.

Artist’s illustration of the Webb telescope’s sunshield pallet opening. Credit: NASA

Mission controllers started the risky process Tuesday to unfurl the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshield, a five-layer thermal barrier necessary to give the observatory infrared vision into the distant universe.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with 36 OneWeb broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

An Ariane 5 rocket, propelled by a main engine and two solid-fueled boosters, leaps off the pad at the Guiana Space Center with the James Webb Space Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope, a NASA-led international collaboration that took nearly 30 years and $10 billion to get to the launch pad, finally left Earth with a Christmas morning rocket ride from a European spaceport in South America, setting off on a mission to hunt for the first light in the universe. That was just the easy part.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

An Ariane 5 rocket reaches the ELA-3 launch zone Thursday at the Guiana Space Center, the final port of call for the James Webb Space Telescope before it ascends into orbit. Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Teams in French Guiana positioned a European Ariane 5 rocket into its starting blocks Thursday, ready for liftoff Christmas morning with the nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, the most expensive science instrument ever to leave planet Earth.

Spaceflight Now’s Editor, Stephen Clark, speaks with NASA’s Keith Parrish, the commissioning manager for the Webb Space Telescope. It is his job to make sure the observatory unfolds and extends correctly. He talks us through the deployment sequence in the month after launch. Find out how shake, shimmy and twirl are in the ground controller’s tool box to fix anything that goes wrong.

Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark speaks to astronaut, astronomer and former NASA science head, John Grunsfeld about the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. What big discoveries is he expecting from JWST? Is he nervous about the complex process to unfold the telescope in space? Why did his efforts to prepare JWST for possible servicing fail?

Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope in its deployed configuration. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Beginning next year, the James Webb Space Telescope will scan a sampling of the nearly 5,000 alien worlds discovered around other stars to help astronomers identify which of the rocky planets might have atmospheres that could sustain life.

The James Webb Space Telescope inside Northrop Grumman’s factory in Redondo Beach, California. Credit: Northrop Grumman

The James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch in the coming days, will look back more than 13.5 billion years in time to see the faint infrared light from the first galaxies, revealing a previously unseen era of cosmic history that shaped the universe of today.

Live coverage of the preparations for launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.