Successful launch of James Webb space telescope with an Ariane 5 rocket

The James Webb telescope took off from Kourou in French Guyana on 25 December aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. This piece of technology should make it possible to observe the first galaxies that appeared after the big bang, but also exoplanets or the formation of stars.

Nestled in the nose of the Ariane 5 rocket, the James Webb telescope finally took off, folded up for a journey of around thirty minutes before the delicate separation operation and its launching into orbit. This is a first victory for the teams of scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency ESA who have worked for 30 years with Canadians to develop it. And some pieces have been made in Belgium, at the Liege Space Centre.

“It’s a unique mission, a journey that will take us back to the very beginning of the genesis of the universe 200 or 300 million years after the big bang. In this way, we will see how the universe was created and how stars or planets were formed”, enthuses Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA.

The telescope is 8 metres high and weighs 6 tonnes. It is the largest and most powerful one ever sent into space. Its sun visor is the size of a tennis court. It will protect it from sunlight to observe the most distant stars and exoplanets by infrared.

Thanks to its infrared technology, it will be able to track the first galaxies, black holes or signs of life around exoplanets. “We mainly want to observe the most distant galaxies in the universe, those formed after the big bang,” said Mark McCaughrean, scientific advisor at ESA.

In just one month, James Webb will reach its destination at 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. And in six months it will send its first photographs to the earth.

The telescope was named after James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992), an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949–1952. He was also the second appointed administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to October 7, 1968.