NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is powered for launch in late December

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The new James Webb Space Telescope has been completed and one step closer to taking flight.

Mission team members have finished refueling the James Webb Space Telescope ahead of its December 22 launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency announced Monday (December 6). The refueling for Webb, which is an international collaborative effort between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, lasted 10 days and was completed on December 3, according to the ESA statement.

After a series of delays since starting development of the oscilloscope in 1996, Webb is still on track to finally launch atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana on December 22.

“Webb’s propellant tanks were separately filled with [21 gallons] 79.5 l of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidant e [42 gallons] 159 l hydrazine, “ESA wrote in the announcement, adding that the oxidant” improves the combustion efficiency of the hydrazine fuel. “

Now that Webb is powered up, the mission team will begin “combined operations,” according to the statement. At this stage, the teams behind the rocket and the telescope will come together to mount Webb on the Ariane 5 rocket and encapsulate it inside the rocket’s fairing. The newly united couple will then be transferred to the Final Assembly building for final preparations before take-off.

Once successfully launched and into space, Webb will begin a complicated series of deployment maneuvers to deploy its solar panels on its journey to its final destination, where it will begin making observations.

Webb is destined for a position in space 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away known as L2, a Lagrange point, or a stable gravitational position in space. Upon arrival, the telescope will spend six months in a “commissioning period” during which the team will make sure it has opened properly and its instruments are functioning properly.

Webb was previously to be launched on December 18 (after many previous delays, budget problems and more) but, as reported by NASA, a clamp holding Webb to the launch vehicle adapter that will allow it to be integrated into the Arianespace launch vehicle had released unexpectedly. The teams investigated the incident and performed further tests before setting a new launch date and moving to a ‘refueling consent’ review before starting refueling.

Webb, which will observe the universe in infrared light, will be the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. Scientists aim to use the tool to peer further into the cosmos than ever before, giving them an unprecedented peek into our universe’s past.

Scientists hope that Webb’s powerful observation technology will allow researchers to discover more information about the early universe, explore mysterious things like dark matter and dark energy, and much more.

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