New telescope "James Webb" to be launched into space on December 18
More than three years later than planned, the new "James Webb" space telescope is now soon to be launched into space. The joint project of the space agencies of Europe, the U.S. and Canada is scheduled to be launched Dec. 18 from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday. Its destination is 1.5 million kilometers away in space. It will take about four weeks for it to get there.
The launch was originally scheduled for October 2018. With the telescope, in whose development Austrian scientists were also involved and in which hardware from Austria has been installed, researchers want to learn more about the early universe. They hope to look back into the universe shortly after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. "James Webb" follows the "Hubble" telescope, which has been in use for more than 30 years.