We will have to wait a little longer before seeing James Webb fly away. The launch of this space telescope, the most powerful ever designed, was again postponed Tuesday, this time due to weather conditions in Kourou, Guyana, from where it must take off aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. , which was scheduled for Friday, could now take place on Saturday, December 25. It would make a real Christmas present for astronomers around the world, who have been waiting for this new observatory for three decades.
The launch “is postponed” because of “bad weather conditions”, confirmed NASA. “The new target launch date is December 25,” as soon as possible within an open fire window between 12:20 and 12:52 GMT (one hour more in Paris). “Tomorrow evening, a new weather forecast will be published to confirm the date of December 25,” NASA said. The rocket and the telescope are currently housed in a building.
Third postponement
This is the third time the launch has been postponed due to minor issues. The first was linked to an incident that occurred during the preparations for the telescope at the end of November, and the second to a communication problem with the ground system.
“Thank you to the teams (…) who are working overtime to ensure a safe launch” to the telescope, tweeted the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, shortly after the announcement of the new postponement. “The countdown to December 25 is on,” he wrote, accompanying his message with an emoticon representing a gift package.
An ultra-complex engineering gem, the James Webb telescope was built in the United States under the direction of NASA, and includes instruments from European and Canadian space agencies. Presented as the successor of the Hubble telescope, launched in 1990, it must explore until the early ages of the Universe. It will be placed in orbit around the Sun, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.