A timeline of the James Webb Space Telescope from its 1996 concept through cost battles, the Christmas Day launch, deployment, and its earliest cosmic discoveries.
The James Webb Space Telescope's long road from 1996 concept to cosmic time machine: cost battles, a Christmas launch, the nerve-wracking deployment, and record-shattering science at L2.
The 'HST and Beyond' report recommends a large infrared successor to Hubble, the concept that becomes JWST (1996; exact day approximate).
NASA names the telescope after James E. Webb, the administrator who led the agency through the Apollo buildup.
NASA picks TRW (soon absorbed by Northrop Grumman) to build the observatory.
After a House proposal to cancel JWST over cost overruns, Congress funds a re-planned $8.8 billion program.
Engineers install the last of 18 gold-coated beryllium segments on the 6.5-meter primary mirror at Goddard.
The telescope endures about 100 days in Johnson Space Center's giant Chamber A to prove it works at deep-space temperatures.
The telescope and spacecraft/sunshield halves are joined for the first time at Northrop Grumman in California.
After a sea voyage through the Panama Canal, the observatory reaches Kourou, French Guiana, for launch preparations.
JWST lifts off from Kourou at 12:20 UTC on Christmas Day, beginning its million-mile journey.
The five-layer, tennis-court-sized sunshield tensions successfully - the riskiest deployment of the mission.
The final mirror wing latches into place, completing the most complex spacecraft deployment ever attempted.
A final burn inserts JWST into orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point, 1.5 million km from Earth.
Webb captures its first photons from the star HD 84406, kicking off months of mirror alignment.
A razor-sharp test image of star 2MASS J17554042+6551277 confirms the 18 segments act as one perfect mirror.
President Biden unveils Webb's First Deep Field of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 - the deepest infrared view of the universe yet.
NASA releases the first full set of color images and spectra - Carina Nebula, Stephan's Quintet, WASP-96b - starting full science.
Webb finds unambiguous carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of hot gas giant WASP-39b, a first for exoplanet science.
Spectroscopy confirms JADES galaxies from within ~350 million years of the Big Bang, the most distant then known.
Webb confirms a galaxy at redshift 14.3, seen less than 300 million years after the Big Bang - the most distant known.
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