ESA Science & Technology - JWST

The launch of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana is now planned for 31 October 2021.

The uncertainties resulting from COVID-19 continue to impact the Cycle 1 schedule. STScI, NASA, ESA, and CSA have decided to delay announcing a formal schedule for JWST Cycle 1 GO/AR proposals. A further update on the schedule is anticipated in mid- to late-July.

Now that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has been assembled into its final form, testing teams seized the unique opportunity to perform a critical software and electrical analysis on the entire observatory as a single, fully connected vehicle.

To test the James Webb Space Telescope's readiness for its journey in space, technicians successfully commanded it to deploy and extend a critical part of the observatory known as the Deployable Tower Assembly.

In a recent test, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed its primary mirror into the same configuration it will have when in space.

The sunshield for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has passed a test critical to preparing the observatory for its 2021 launch. Technicians and engineers fully deployed and tensioned each of the sunshield's five layers, successfully putting the sunshield into the same position it will be in a million miles from Earth.