NASA James Webb Space Telescope to Face Another Delay Until Christmas Eve

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which was scheduled to launch over the past months, will be rescheduled again for another lift-off.

Following the agency's previous announcement about the telescope's launch on Dec. 22, the team said it would be postponed for another time this month.

James Webb Space Telescope Delayed Once Again

NASA James Webb Space Telescope to Face Another Delay Until Christmas Eve — Washington, UNITED STATES: A full scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope sits on the National Mall outside the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum 10 May, 2007 in Washington, DC. The James Webb Space Telescope is a planned space infrared observatory, intended to be a significant improvement on the aging Hubble Space Telescope. It will be constructed and operated by NASA with help from ESA and CSA. Formerly called the Next Generation Space Telescope (or NGST), it was renamed after NASA's second administrator, James E. Webb, in 2002. The telescope's launch is planned for no earlier than June 2013. It will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket. TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images

According to a report by Engadget on Wednesday, Dec. 15, NASA posted on its official page that the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope will be delayed once again for its upcoming launch.

The team behind James Webb said that they are currently fixing a data glitch between the telescope and the Ariane 5 vehicle. Moreover, NASA mentioned that its original launch would be moved no earlier than Christmas eve, Dec. 24.

Since 1996, scientists have been dealing with many problems regarding this observatory. After the suspension of its testing occurred last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, NASA decided to release Jit on Oct. 18 of 2021.

Upon undergoing another round of tests, its primary contractor Northrop Grumman concluded that the telescope is not yet ready for the launch in November or December.

Previously, NASA moved the launch of the James Webb Telescope to Dec. 22 from Dec. 18 because of the problem with the clamp band. The agency checked the vehicle adapter and saw no damage in the observatory after the inspection.

According to the space agency, it will announce more information about its next launch data on Friday, Dec. 17. If no problems surface this week, the James Webb Space Telescope could probably liftoff on Dec. 24.

The Special Part on James Webb Space Telescope

In another report from Sci-Tech Daily, the space observatory will help astronomers have a glance at the primal galaxies that formed more than 13.5 billion years ago. In addition, Webb can also see streaks of infrared light produced by the first luminous objects as visible and ultraviolet light.

Besides that, scientists will use this space telescope to observe the evolution of the exoplanets and their surrounding bodies. They could also study the movement of the celestial objects around a group of stars.

The James Webb Telescope is a powerful tool that can spot exoplanets on the habitable zones of their stars. These places could point out the habitability of a planet in the solar system.

Through a method called transmission spectroscopy, the experts could use the telescope to study the chemical compositions of the planets at first glance.

The Most Complicated Telescope

Back in November, Tech Times reported that NASA called Webb the "most complicated" space observatory that exists to date because there are more than 300 ways that it could fail.

Before the data glitch happened, the experts anticipated that the potential issue would appear in the upcoming months.

According to the lead mission engineer for the Goddard Space Flight Center, Mike Menzel, 80% of the single-point-of-failure items will be related to the deployment of the telescope.

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Written by Joseph Henry