The James Webb Space Telescope, which was to be the successor to the Hubble, has been delayed.
The launch will take place a day later than planned, on Christmas Day from Kourou, French Guiana’s spaceport, where high winds are a major worry.
On Saturday, an Ariane 5 rocket will lift the next-generation space observatory into space.
The $10-billion James Webb Space Telescope is the most expensive ever launched and will assist scientists in making significant breakthroughs.
It is intended to look further back in time than the Hubble and discover events from over 13.5 billion years ago.
For 30 years, the Hubble Space Telescope, currently the most powerful instrument in space, has provided outstanding observations to astronomers, but its age and a need for a replacement were becoming apparent.
So, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) decided to build a larger and more powerful telescope as part of their continuing effort to explore space.
The difference between the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble is that it can see in infrared light.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to observe the atmospheres of distant worlds for any signs of life using its advanced capabilities.
NASA announced this week that they will aim for a launch on December 25th. A 32-minute mission’s launch window opens at 7:20 am EST (5:50 pm IST), it added.
According to a BBC report, mission controllers are taking into account strong high-level winds blowing in the wrong direction when considering whether the launch will succeed. The Ariane 5 rocket is planned to blast off for 27 minutes.
NASA’s James Webb, which was designed to study the first stages of life on Earth and explore how they may have evolved into what we know now, will be launched 1.5 million kilometers beyond Earth.