Spacecraft Archive
James Webb Space Telescope
Space Telescopes
The largest and most powerful space telescope ever built, James Webb observes the universe in infrared light from a stable orbit nearly a million miles beyond the Moon, revealing galaxies, stars, and planets too faint or too distant for Hubble to see.
OrbitingTruths Archive
Space Telescopes • Active
Overview
Built for the mission
The largest and most powerful space telescope ever built, James Webb observes the universe in infrared light from a stable orbit nearly a million miles beyond the Moon, revealing galaxies, stars, and planets too faint or too distant for Hubble to see.
Spacecraft Details
Type
Space Telescope
Manufacturer
Northrop Grumman
Launch Date
December 25, 2021
Launch Vehicle
Ariane 5, from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana
Primary Mirror
6.5 meters (21.3 ft), 18 gold-coated hexagonal segments
Orbit
Sun-Earth L2, approximately 1.5 million km from Earth
Program
Space Telescopes
Status
Active, began science operations in July 2022
Operator
NASA / ESA / Canadian Space Agency
Related Program
Space Telescopes
NASA's uncrewed observatories, launched above Earth's atmosphere to see the universe with a clarity no ground-based telescope can match.
Explore Program