In the past 25 years since the project was established in 1996, the James Webb Telescope, the successor of hubble, will be launched by the Ariane-5 launch vehicle on December 18, 2021, US time. It can be said with great certainty that once the James Webb Telescope is successfully launched, human understanding of the universe will take a big step forward. Good to look forward to!
Do you have the same question as me, why did the James Webb telescope choose to release pigeons again and again and not launch them, and contribute to humanity sooner? Later, I consulted a lot of information, and I realized that although the United States does not use the space shuttle now, the United States has manned spacecraft technology represented by Musk's SpaceX, Bezos's Blue Origin, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, etc.; and specific to the James Webb Telescope, because the Webb Telescope will be launched to the "second Lagrange point" to operate (which is 1.5 million kilometers away from the earth). Unlike hubble, which operates in low-Earth orbit 600 kilometers from Earth (the last time Musk's Dragon spacecraft was only 575 kilometers away from Earth), the previous Hubble telescope problem can also be sent to the space shuttle to repair, and once the Webb telescope fails, with the current level of human technology, it is almost impossible to repair and maintain (no spacecraft can fly 1.5 million kilometers to repair). ）。 Therefore, the entire process of the Weber telescope from design and manufacture to launch must be perfect. That's why we've been putting the pigeons of the majority of science and technology enthusiasts for so long, and this launch is only allowed to succeed and not fail, let's wait and see!
Second Lagrange point
James Webb Telescope