The James Webb Space Telescope launched successfully aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana at 7:20 a.m. EST to begin an extraordinary astronomy mission to caputre light from the first stars in the universe.
A smooth launch led to successful separation of the telescope observatory from the last stage of the rocket at 27 minutes into the mission, leading to loud applause from the mission control team.
Researchers around the globe have been awaiting the launch because the telescope promises to offer insights into profound topics such as the origins of the universe, the nature of black holes, and more.
Webb is a $10 billion project formally started in 2003. It represents an international partnership with NASA, European and Canadian space agencies and more than 10,000 scientists and engineers.
NASA describes Webb as the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built to be launched into space.
The 22-foot mirror of the Webb telescope is more than two times larger than that of Hubble but will provide 100 times better sensitivity to images from the solar system and far into the universe, astronomers said. Astronomers across the globe have lined up for different insights Webb will offer. One research group at University of Virginia is focused on the chemical composition of ice in newborn stars.
After the successful launch, Webb will travel 1 million miles to orbit the Sun at a location known as L2. Some of the first data will be provided to scientists in about one year with the first images coming in about six months. NASA launch coverage is at nasa.gov/live.
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