NASA has set a new date for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, from French Guiana: 31 October 2021.

NASA sets back James Webb Space Telescope launch date

The original date – March 2021 – has been affected both by the Covid-19 pandemic and also technical issues.

The decision was based on a recently completed schedule risk assessment of the remaining integration and test activities, said Nasa.

The James Webb Space Telescope is designed to be next major space science observatory, building on the work of the Hubble Space Telescope.

“The perseverance and innovation of the entire Webb Telescope team has enabled us to work through challenging situations we could not have foreseen on our path to launch this unprecedented mission,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

“Webb is the world’s most complex space observatory, and our top science priority, and we’ve worked hard to keep progress moving during the pandemic. The team continues to be focused on reaching milestones and arriving at the technical solutions that will see us through to this new launch date next year.”

This week, highlighted Nasa, the project successfully completed electrical testing of the observatory.

“Webb is designed to build upon the incredible legacies of the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, by observing the infrared universe and exploring every phase of cosmic history,” said Eric Smith, NASA Webb’s program scientist at the agency’s headquarters. “The observatory will detect light from the first generation of galaxies that formed in the early universe after the big bang and study the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets for possible signs of habitability.”

It is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency.

The ESA provides the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, the Ariane 5 launcher, and staff to support mission operations at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, USA.