The James Webb Space Telescope
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| Credit: Northrop Grumman Space Technology
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| The James Webb Space Telescope
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NASA HQ statement on JWST project status/budget issues
The James Webb Space Telescope is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope scheduled for launch no earlier than June 2013. JWST is designed to study the earliest galaxies and some of the first stars formed after the Big Bang. These early objects
have a high redshift from our vantage-point, meaning that the best observations for these objects are available in the infrared.
JWST's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability
in the visible range.
JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (20 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror
and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open only once JWST is in outer space.
JWST will reside in an L2 Lissajous orbit, about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth.
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News Updates
| 02 Nov 2005:
Astronomers May Have Detected Earliest Stars | CNN Article |
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The James Webb Space Telescope was originally called The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST).
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