NASA says Webb telescope behind schedule, but ‘worth the wait’

MARCH 20, 2019

The James Webb Space Telescope has hit a few snags in its schedule, but NASA says it will be worth the wait. Its new launch date is in March of 2021, and it will be larger than Hubble and 100 times better, according to Program Manager Gregory Robinson. An independent review board in March pushed the expected launch date back to 2020, but NASA discovered another problem in April: the sunshields on the spacecraft meant to carry it out of the atmosphere. That pushed the date back by a few more months. The telescope itself is only waiting on some follow-up testing. Robinson said it will be ready to integrate with the spacecraft as soon as that’s completed. “The telescope and the instruments are completely developed,” he said on Agency in Focus – NASA. “They completed all their environmental testing at Johnson Space Center and were delivered to Northrop Grumman at Space Park earlier this calendar year.”