The new “early release observations”, selected by an international committee of representatives from Nasa, Esa (European Space Agency), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and the Space Telescope Science Institute, are part of a programme designed to highlight the wide range of science the telescope will carry out. Those of us who have been involved in the journey and will work on the data, can hardly wait. While this sometimes resulted in schedule slippages and cost increases, it has ultimately produced a perfect telescope.ĭuring July, the telescope moved from its checkout and testing phase to operation, as the amazing observatory it has long been planned to be. It also highlights the tremendous importance of the testing programme carried out on Earth to verify the procedures and which occasionally revealed problems that needed to be fixed before launch. This is not just a testament to the skill of the engineers, technicians and scientists in the project.
But the programme was perfectly executed, a process that ran more smoothly and successfully than any one of us had dared hope, let alone expect. If any of these operations had failed, James Webb would have been an unusable disaster.
Nasa picture of the day milky way series#
On July 12, Nasa released the first scientific observations made by the suite of instruments carried on board the mission, marking what we eagerly anticipate will be the beginning of a new era in astronomy.Īfter the nail-biting launch on Christmas Day, a series of critical deployments followed to open up the telescope and its sun-shade.
After decades of development and many trials and frustrations along the way, the James Webb telescope has finally started to deliver what it came for.
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