After Years Of Delays, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope To Launch In December

Short Wave

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🗓️ 24 September 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

In December, NASA is scheduled to launch the huge $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is sometimes billed as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. NPR correspondents Rhitu Chatterjee and Nell Greenfieldboyce talk about this powerful new instrument and why building it took two decades.

For more of Nell's reporting on the telescope, check out "NASA Is Launching A New Telescope That Could Offer Some Cosmic Eye Candy."

(https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1036600340/nasa-is-launching-a-new-telescope-that-could-offer-some-cosmic-eye-candy)

You can follow Rhitu on Twitter @RhituC and Nell @Nell_Sci_NPR. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.2	Hello, Shortwaveers.
0:06.7	This is Riku Chateji here, and joining me today is science correspondent Nell Greenfield
0:11.6	voice, with some exciting astronomy news.
0:14.2	Hi, Nell.
0:15.2	Hey there, Ritu.
0:16.2	So today we're going to talk about NASA's next big space telescope, the James Webb Space
0:20.8	Telescope.
0:22.0	This is a behemoth that is sometimes called the successor of Hubble.
0:27.0	And it will be the biggest, most powerful telescope ever put into space.
0:31.3	And I hear we finally have a launch date.
0:33.9	It's been a long time coming.
0:36.0	Indeed indeed it has.
0:37.4	And now it's supposed to launch on December 18th.
0:39.6	Hasn't this telescope been in the works for over 20 years?
0:43.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:44.0	I first reported on it for NPR back in 2007.
0:48.2	That's when they built this giant life-sized model of the thing and we're bringing around
0:51.8	the country.
0:52.8	I went to see it when it was set up here in DC, down by the White House and all the monuments.
0:56.9	And to me it looked like this big ray gun that was about to zap the dome off the capital
1:00.8	building.
	...

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