You're listening to NASA's curious universe.

I'm your host, Patty Boyd.

NASA is doing something astronomers dreamed about for decades.

The James Webb Space Telescope is peering into our universe's early past at some of the very first stars and galaxies to ever form,

and the first light after the Big Bang.

Cosmic Dawn.

Cosmic Dawn is also the title of a brand new NASA documentary.

It covers the untold story of the Webb Telescope's design, construction, and launch.

You're in for a treat. You get to peek inside NASA clean rooms, beryllium mines, and even weather a hurricane.

There are a lot of twists and turns. And ahead of the big premiere, I wanted

to talk to someone who knows the Webb telescope better than just about anyone because he was one

of the people who first dreamed it up. John Mather is a senior astrophysicist at NASA. He's always

been a bit of a science celebrity here, and that was even before he won the Nobel

Prize in physics in 2006.

I've known John for decades, and it was so much fun to sit down and ask him about his life,

his research, and what it really feels like to win a Nobel Prize.

John Mather, welcome to Curious Universe.

Thank you, Patty. It's great to be here with you.

I'm delighted that you're here. It's the first time we've seen each other in a while since the James Web Space Telescope launched.

So first of all, congratulations on what an amazingly successful.

It's a wonderful, wonderful observatory and it's working beautifully.

So we referenced Cosmic Dawn just a moment ago.

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