Launch of James Webb telescope postponed for a day

Due to adverse weather conditions, the most powerful space telescope ever built will take to the skies not Friday, but Christmas Day.

In style, the launch of the James Webb telescope has been postponed one last time a few days before it was due to take to the skies. Actually, the telescope should have been launched next Friday. But due to unfavorable weather conditions, NASA and ESA do not dare to take it.

First Christmas Day

However, we don’t have to wait long. Because if the weather is a bit favorable, the mighty telescope will be fired on Christmas Day. Whether that will work remains to be seen. Right now, dark clouds are gathering over the European spaceport Kourou; a launch site in French Guiana, located on the northeast coast of South America. It means that it can rain and thunder in the coming days. Tomorrow evening, experts will once again study the weather forecast to determine whether James Webb will be able to take to the skies for Christmas.

Ariane 5
The space telescope is currently waiting in a secure building for its future launch. The telescope will be launched using an Ariane 5 rocket when the green light is given. Moments after completing a 26-minute ride aboard the Ariane 5, James Webb will separate from the rocket and the solar panel will activate automatically. It will then take Webb a month to fly to its intended orbital location, a whopping 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been delayed from launch. When the telescope was built, NASA expected it to be launched sometime between 2007 and 2011. But as work on the telescope progressed, it became clear that building it was a lot more difficult than expected. And the launch was repeatedly delayed. First to 2013. Later to 2018. And then the spring of 2019. A little later, May 2020. Then spring 2021 and autumn 2021. Now it comes to days; from December 18, to December 24 and now to December 25. Will it be the last time? We will see…