NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrives in French Guiana ahead of Dec. 18 launch

[Judi Lynn]

By Mike Wall about 1 hour ago

The $10 billion observatory just wrapped up a 16-day ocean voyage.



A cargo ship carrying NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived in French Guiana on Oct. 12, 2021, after a 16-day sea voyage. Webb is scheduled to launch from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Dec. 18. (Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)

The earthly journeys of NASA's next big space observatory are nearly at an end.

A cargo ship carrying the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope arrived in French Guiana on Tuesday (Oct. 12), wrapping up a 16-day ocean voyage that covered 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometers), NASA officials said.

The ship, known as the MN Colibri, departed from Seal Beach in Southern California's Orange County on Sept. 26. It entered the Panama Canal on Oct. 5, moving from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and then made its way to French Guiana, a French territory on South America's northeastern coast.

The precious cargo will next be driven to Europe's Spaceport in the French Guiana town of Kourou, where it will be prepped for a planned Dec. 18 launch atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket.

More:
https://www.space.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-arrives-french-guiana?utm_source=notification

[krispos42]

1. I had a vision of the ship getting stuck in the canal and delaying the launch even more

Just because that's how the James Webb Telescope rolls...