Feature story
Europe-U.S. agreement formalizes the James Webb Space Telescope's launch on Ariane 5
Paris Air Show 2007 special report
June 23, 2007
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An agreement involving Ariane 5's launch of a large new star-gazing payload was signed this week at the Paris Air Show as part of an important European-U.S. space cooperation plan.
This accord calls for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to be carried by Ariane 5 in 2013, placing it on a 1.5 million kilometer voyage to a deep space location called the second Lagrange point (L2). From here, the spacecraft will image galaxies and clusters of galaxies out to greater distances than ever before, and for the first time, scientists will be able to observe the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the universe billions of years ago.
The European-U.S. cooperation agreement on the James Webb Space Telescope was signed at the Paris Air Show by European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Michael Griffin, Administrator of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Under terms of the accord, NASA is responsible for the overall management and operations of the telescope (being built by Northrop Grumman Space Technology) and the mission, along with a portion of its instrument payload. The European Space Agency will provide the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, and also is contributing to the onboard instrumentation, along with the Canadian Space Agency.
To image objects at distances of billions of light years away, the James Webb Space Telescope is fitted with a 6.5-meter aperture primary mirror, which is comprised of 18 hexagonal-shaped segments. The mirror has a light-collecting sensitivity to see objects 400 times fainter than those currently observed by ground- and space-based telescopes.
To protect the telescope from sunlight - and to keep it at a very cold temperature for its operation - the spacecraft carries a five-layer sunshield nearly the size of a tennis court.
Ariane 5's large payload fairing and excellent lift performance allows the launch vehicle to accommodate such a massive space observatory. The telescope's large mirror and sunshield will be folded for its launch configuration under the Ariane 5 fairing, with both structures deploying in space after the James Webb Space Telescope is on its way to the L2 point.
This launch will continue the proud heritage of Ariane in support of space science and astronomical missions, which includes Ariane 5's orbiting of Europe's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory in 1999 - the biggest European science satellite ever built.
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