NASA delays until 2021 the launch of the James Webb telescope

The US Space Agency (NASA) delays until March 30, 2021 the launch of the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), considered the successor to Hubble and whose journey has already been

NASA announced this decision after receiving a report from the Independent Review Board (IRB), a committee charged with ensuring the viability of space agency missions.

This committee concluded that the launch of the telescope planned for May 2020, should be postponed for one year and bring its final cost to 9 thousand 660 million dollars.

commissioned the report to the IRB in April, led by Tom Young a former director of the agency, after some incidents were recorded in tests that were conducted at The Northrop Grumman Aerospac e Systems contractor's observatory in Redondo Beach, California, USA

During the tests, parts of the telescope were dismounted and parts fell.

In a press call, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate director of the scientific mission of NASA explained that the problems of this test were the result of human error, of a "Excessive optimism" and the complexity of the ship, which will be launched on the orbit of the Sun

. The telescope has already been delayed three times because it was thought to be in orbit in the spring of 2018, but was postponed until October 2019 and eventually to May 2020.

The telescope, which receives the telescope The name of the former administrator of NASA James Webb is the most sophisticated that the US space agency has built. and the European Space Agency (ESA).

It is considered the successor of Hubble, which was launched in 1990 and which was also a project of international cooperation between the European Space Agency and the United States.

The James Webb telescope with complex and forward-thinking applications, including Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam).

This instrument is designed primarily to search for stars; star clusters and primordial galaxy nuclei formed after the "Big Bang "; discover supernovae in distant galaxies and analyze the stellar population of neighboring galaxies, among other tasks.

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