James Webb Telescope Facts Including Cost, Orbit As Launch Date Set

James Webb Telescope Facts Including Cost, Orbit As Launch Date Set

The James Webb Telescope (JWST), which will enable humans to look further back in time than ever before, will be launched in December according to the space agencies behind the project.

NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and French company Arianespace have jointly agreed on December 18 as the launch date for the Ariane 5 flight VA256, which will carry the JWST to its vantage point in space.

The JWST is completed, and at the end of September the telescope will be shipped to the launch site at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The Spaceport was also the launch site of ESA's CHEOPS mission in 2019. CHEOPS has been selecting so-called "Golden Target" planets outside the solar system, exoplanets, for follow-up investigation by the JWST.