James Webb Space Telescope, information, updates and discussion Options

[Redstone]

The manufacture of the JWST mirror blanks has now been completed.

Despite this milestone, the fate of JWST is still somewhat precarious, because although the scientific bang from the telescope is expected to be huge, the bucks required have increased to a staggering $4.5 billion. A Space.com article on the squeeze in NASA's space-based astronomy plans gives some background.

The JWST home page can be found here.

The Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs Hubble, also has a site here. As does ESA.

[Steve G]

A good article just released.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/n...ntriguing-moons

[JRehling]

There is at least one more launch delay. A launch date of late October has slipped, and now November or December would be the earliest opportunities. Aside from technical matters, COVID protocols at the launch site in South America introduce a wildcard that can't be predicted yet.

I note that at the top of this page there was a post from late 2016 calling the launch two years away. It might be interesting to see a graph of how the projected launch date has changed over time. We may need to rename Zeno's paradox to "honor" this telescope.