An Ariane 5 rocket successfully injected the James Webb Space Telescope Saturday into its final orbit, which it will reach within a month, the Guyana Space Center’s director of launches announced.
France Press agency
Well-Separated Webb Telescope, Go Webb,” declared Jean-Luc Foer of the Kourou control center jar. The upper stage of the Ariane rocket launched after 27 minutes of flight the telescope, which will now take about a month to reach its observation center 1.5 million kilometers from the earth.
Ariane 5 soared into the skies of Kuru at the appointed time, carrying the most advanced observational instrument in the universe to go into space.
Manufactured by NASA in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (ACS), the precious cargo flew over the Atlantic, then Africa, until the final separation, which occurred at an altitude of 1,400 km and a speed of more than 34,000 km / h.
An onboard camera upstairs from Ariadne showed this class and especially James Webb’s solar panel deployment a few seconds later. Images of this critical moment, in particular to ensure power to the telescope’s instruments, provoked a thunder of applause in Jupiter’s center, as loud as that marked the success of the class.
France Press agency
Another difference: the method of observation. Where Hubble observes space primarily in the visible light field, James Webb ventures at a wavelength that escapes the eye: the near and mid-infrared. Radiation that any object, star, human or flower emits naturally.
James Webb’s controls are now in the hands of NASA, from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore (USA).
It will oversee the exact deployments of the observatory, before it reaches Lagrange Point 2, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Scientific exploration of the universe will begin in six months.
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