When it comes to planning for all possible outcomes, you can’t beat the scientists who flung a 10 billion dollar telescope into orbit! The James Webb telescope was developed and built by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. This worldwide effort will give all of humanity, and the scientific community, a whole new view of the universe.

Once the telescope is in position, it will start going through the list of projects that have been selected from the initial round of submissions and proposals. The James Webb has close to 7,000 hours of projects slated for its future, and that’s just for its first run of space experiments. In order to deal with bias in research grants, the projects underwent a double-blind screening process, ensuring that each project was fully vetted on its merits with no or little internal bias.

This innovative telescope also had to unfold itself in the vacuum of space, and do it perfectly, while flying to its final orbit. Through rigorous testing, the teams managed to build a system that has fully deployed the satellite without a single thing going wrong. This, in and of itself, is an amazing feat as I know that many of us have pinched our fingers when unfolding simple tables. The next task, in addition to travelling to and arriving it its final location, JWST will need to adjust its 18 gold-plated mirrors to the perfect alignment. The gold-plating provides infrared reflectivity and durability.

A machine the size of a tennis court, the James Webb will bring us a whole host of new and amazing interstellar photography. From the black hole at the center of the Milky Way to the Earth-like planets in the Trappist system, the telescope will allow us to answer questions and learn so much more about this wonderful and wild universe around us. The first images are expected by June 2022.

You can learn more about the telescope and its missions on the NASA website, and see updates on its own dedicated Instagram page: @nasawebb. You can even track the progress here.

Want even more information? Check out this article on Space.com.

We can’t wait to see what discoveries are made from this confluence of collaboration and curiosity!