The launch of the James Webb space telescope scheduled for December 22 won't take place before December 24, NASA announced on Wednesday.

The NASA project, launched in 1989, was originally expected to deploy in the early 2000s.

But multiple problems forced delays and a tripling of the telescope's original budget with a final price tag of nearly 10 billion dollars (8.8 billion euros).

Webb was built in the US and transported to its launch site in Kourou in French Guyana this year, where its launch date of December 18 was already pushed back after an incident.

This time a communication problem is to blame.

"The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system," a brief update on the NASA website reads.

"This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24."

European Space Agency officials told AFP the problem was discovered after the telescope was installed on the Ariane 5 rocket on Saturday.

All the tests had to be run again to make sure everything was still working.

The Webb telescope, named after a former director of the American space agency, will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space.

It follows in the footsteps of the legendary Hubble but will be located much further from the sun. It is hoped that it will show humans what the Universe looked like even closer to its birth nearly 14 billion years ago.

Related Links
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

NASA's Webb Telescope will have the coolest camera in space
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
Set to launch on Dec. 22, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the largest space observatory in history, and it has an equally gargantuan task: to collect infrared light from the distant corners of the cosmos, enabling scientists to probe the structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Many cosmic objects - including stars and planets, as well as the gas and dust from where they form - emit infrared light, sometimes called heat radiation. But so do most other warm objects, like toa ... read more