The James Webb Space Telescope is human hope on a rocket

[Zorro]

The James Webb Space Telescope, which weighs 7.2 tons and cost $11 billion, launches Dec. 22. (NASA/Desiree Stover)

Though it won’t receive the hype given to actor William Shatner’s recent joyride to the nearest edge of space, a daring voyage of enormous scientific promise will lift off in coming days from a base in South America.

The James Webb Space Telescope, decades in the making, is designed to travel nearly 1 million miles to reach a very particular spot to take up orbit. For comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope is about 340 miles from Earth. Shatner went up about 66 miles. The difference between 340 miles and 1 million miles is roughly comparable to the difference between a leisurely 20-minute stroll and a hike from New York to Los Angeles.

Even more extraordinary, the new telescope is much larger than Hubble, with a primary mirror so big engineers had to figure out how to fold it to fit onto a rocket. Such a large mirror, placed so far away, will — scientists fervently hope — allow the telescope to examine the formation of early galaxies and greatly accelerate the search for Earthlike planets.

Webb’s scheduled launch from French Guiana on Dec. 22 atop a European Space Agency rocket will begin one of the most harrowing and potentially stunning moments in the history of human engineering. Like an $11 billion origami, the 7.2-ton telescope will use advanced motors, firing pins and springs to open itself like a flower. A multilayered sun shield, as big as a tennis court, with each layer paper-thin, must be pulled taut. A rip in the shield could doom the entire mission.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/10/james-webb-space-telescope-nasa-human-hope/