Space Science Mission Facts

The James Webb Space Telescope is a space science mission that was launched in December of 2021. It is a joint project between NASA, The European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

The JWST has three primary components: the spacecraft, the telescope itself, and the sunshield.

The mission is divided into three parts. One part involves building the spacecraft called "Lunar Orbiting Observatory-A" (LOA). The second part involves building a telescope called "Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph" (STIS). The third part involves building a sunshield called "Sun Shield Simulator" (SSS). In total there are 18 primary beryllium coated with mirror segments that will be used in JWST.

It is being built by European and North American scientists, who have worked together since 1994 to create one of the most sophisticated scientific instruments ever made. It is intended to study planets around other stars and galaxies, dark energy, dark matter and star-forming regions in our galaxy.

In December 2016, NASA announced that it would partner with ESA on the mission; this builds on a previous agreement between them from 2013 when NASA committed to launching a successor to Hubble by 2018.

The telescope will be placed at an altitude of 1.5 million km (0.93 million miles) into space where it will record infrared light from objects as they are born in deep space.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It has been named after Dr. James E. Webb, the first administrator of NASA.

The telescope takes its name from American politician James E. Webb, who was a member of the US Senate from 1963 until 2001 and served as NASA Administrator from 2001 until 2005. It's also known as JWST, which stands for James Webb Space Telescope.

The most interesting fact about this mission is that in 2004 construction began but it took 20 years to complete it and finally in 2018 preparations started for launch which was conducted successfully on December 25th 2021 at 3:09 pm EST from Virginia Beach VA near Washington DC.

The spacecraft is made up of 18 beryllium segments with mirrors at each end. These segments must be kept extremely cold so they can keep their shape as they spin around at high speeds inside the telescope's bus.

The telescope itself contains eight mirror segments in addition to its own internal structure and cooling system for its instruments. All these components are housed inside a 4-meter-wide tube that holds them in place during launch conditions.

When we talk about James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it's easy to forget that this isn't just a mission—it's an entire space science community.

But don't worry—it wasn't all smooth sailing during development! Over 1200 scientists, engineers, technicians worked on this project from 14 countries around the world. So yes: you can thank them for all those amazing new insights into our universe! 

Author - K. Prabhakaran