NASA will soon be getting a clearer view of Earth and outer space, thanks to a new high-powered telescope that will operate from outside the planet’s atmosphere.
The James Webb Space Telescope — which is considered a successor to the Hubble telescope — is slated to blast off from Cape Canaveral on Christmas Eve, NASA officials announced Friday. The $10 billion piece of equipment was originally set for a Saturday launch, but a bad communication link on its rocket forced officials to postpone the take-off, according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope officially set to launch Dec. 24 https://t.co/o7iiL5OqNV pic.twitter.com/nTS3a22EFf
— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) December 18, 2021
Once it is in position, the new telescope will allow researchers to look back at a time when the first stars and galaxies were forming, Nelson says.
Is anything worth $10 billion? Is launching something like this important, or a waste of taxpayers’ money?
