NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Launch Faces ANOTHER Delay—Here’s Why

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launch has been delayed again to a much later date from Dec. 18 to Dec. 22, after figuring in an "incident."

The James Webb Space Telescope of NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is expected to be the most powerful observational tool to reach space, as per the report by Space.com.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

In fact, the said space telescope cost the United States space agency a whopping $10 billion to develop. Not to mention that it took around 30 years in the making before it attained its current form.

The James Webb telescope is now completed and has already reached its launch site in the spaceport of Europe in French Guiana last Oct. 12. It successfully arrived after a 16-day voyage in the ocean from the Orange County of Southern California.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Launch Delayed

However, this time around, as the James Webb telescope is gearing up for its launch on Dec. 18, another hiccup is delaying its liftoff in a few more days, or on Dec. 22 to be more precise.

NASA will be needing more days before the launch of Webb after it experienced an "incident" in the facilities of French Guiana.

The new hiccup that the space telescope is facing occurred while the "technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter," NASA said in its latest statement.

The space agency further added that during the installation of the Webb telescope to the Ariane 5 rocket, there was an accidental "release of a clamp band." As such, the whole observatory is now experiencing vibrations.

NASA went on to clarify that all of the launch preparations for the Webb are being spearheaded by the French firm that goes by the name Arianespace. That said, the space agency said that the latter has the "overall responsibility" for it.

It is worth noting that the Webb space telescope will be launching to space on the Ariane 5 rocket of the Arianespace.

NASA James Webb Space Telescope Investigation

After which, according to the news story by ArsTechnica, NASA announced that it will be leading an anomaly review board to further investigate the said incident involving the $10 billion worth of space telescope.

What's more, the US space agency will also be conducting more testing to ensure that the James Webb telescope did not receive any damage from the latest mishap.

NASA further assured the public that the results of the tests on the Webb would be released before this week comes to an end.

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Written by Teejay Boris