Nasa’s flagship mission counts down to launch at 1220 GMT on Christmas Day from Kourou, French Guiana
Final checks and fuelling are under way for the launch of the James WebbTelescope, a flagship mission for Nasa that aims to observe worlds beyond the solar system and the first stars and galaxies that lit up the cosmos.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” said Prof Martin Barstow, chair of the Space Telescope Institute Council and director of strategic partnerships at Space Park Leicester. “It’s exciting to think that after so long, we might eventually get this telescope into space. But I’m nervous because we all know that however good the rocket is, there are risks in getting there, and a whole lot of things have to go perfectly for us to have a working telescope.
Webb’s primary mirror is so large that it must be folded up for launch and unfolded during the month-long journey to L2. Along the way, the telescope will also deploy a sunshade the size of a tennis court to help shield the telescope from the sun’s rays.
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