The James Webb telescope has seen major success and recognition around the world. A NASA partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, the Webb telescope is presently the largest optical telescope in space. This telescope primarily observes infrared light from very faint and distant objects, showing the history of the universe at a new depth. Its 21.3-foot mirror makes it the farthest seeing telescope ever to be built. Daniel Eisenstein, an American cosmologist, will use the Webb telescope to “time-travel” to where the earliest galaxies were formed right before the Big Bang. He explains that because telescopes can observe light from so far away, they are much like time machines; “one of the big purposes of telescopes is actually as time machines, because distance is look-back time.” 

The Webb telescope has an extensive timeline. Its construction began in 2004, 8 years after planning began in 1996. Although originally set to launch in 2010, its launch date was delayed 8 times. This additional time summed up to a decade. It was spent repairing recurring errors in the technology and design of the telescope. Management issues of the telescope greatly contributed to these errors, as inspectors failed to catch human errors, resulting in easily avoidable mistakes. This project required an abundance of government approval, and risked cancellation due to the inflation of the budget. After overcoming this medley of obstacles, the telescope ended up costing an extra $9 billion for a total of $10 billion spent.

The Webb Telescope launched on December 7th, 2021 at 7:20 AM EST from ESA’s spaceport in French Guiana. The months forward would involve prepping and tuning the telescope, and would result in it falling into an annual orbit around the sun at a point called the second Lagrange Point (L2). The second Lagrange Point is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This distance allows the Webb telescope’s five-layered sunshield to effectively protect the telescope from the intense heat of the sun. The tennis court-sized sunshield must be perpendicularly aligned with the sun to ensure the mirror and other parts of the telescope remain at a cold temperature and in complete darkness. Its highly sensitive cryo-cooling technology makes sure that these instruments remain at a temperature of –369.24 degrees fahrenheit. Furthermore, the telescope’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI); which will observe short, medium, and long wavelengths of light, requires an even lower temperature of –447 degrees fahrenheit.

Now, NASA and its partners are able to prove that the extra $9 billion dollars were worthwhile. The aim of the telescope; to capture new and old images in a new light, was made true when the Webb telescope's first images were revealed the morning of July 12th, 2022. They were named Stephan’s Quintet, Carina Nebula, Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132), SMACS 0723, and WASP-96-b, which was not an image but a detection of water and evidence of clouds and haze on the exoplanet WASP 96-b. These images amassed over 22 million likes on NASA’s official Instagram page and have been discussed extensively across media platforms. Though this telescope has only been in space for less than a year, the early success of the Webb telescope has proven to scientists that it will be a major catalyst in the persisting mission to explore the vast universe.