Space Telescope Science Institute history

In April 1990, the crew of the space shuttle Discovery successfully launched and deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

The issue was completely resolved during the first servicing mission in December 1993, which included the installation of the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC 2), correcting Hubble’s optics and immediately clarifying the data.

NASA agreed in 1997 to fund additional studies to refine the technical and financial requirements for building the telescope.

After construction on the new project began, it was renamed in honor of former NASA Administrator James E. Webb in 2002.

Construction on Webb began in 2004.

In 2005, the European Space Agency’s Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) spaceport in French Guiana was chosen as the launch site, and an Ariane 5 rocket as the launch vehicle.

In 2012, MAST was renamed in honor of Maryland’s United States Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, who was a steadfast supporter of NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

In 2013, construction of the sunshield layers began.

JULY 25, 2014: The Sunshield on Webb is the largest part of the observatory—five layers of thin membrane that must unfurl reliably in space to precise tolerances.

NOVEMBER 18, 2015: Inside the massive clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD the Webb Telescope's structure was lifted and lowered by crane onto the bright yellow optical assembly stand.

APRIL 25, 2017: The deployed primary mirror of the Webb telescope looks like a spring flower in full bloom! NASA technicians lifted the telescope using a crane and moved it inside a NASA-Goddard clean room.

JANUARY 29, 2018: Transporting something as large and as delicate as Webb is no easy task.

EST (1220 GMT) on December 25, 2021, Webb launched from CSG.