Hubble Space Telescope successor to launch in December

The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch on December 18.

Yes, countless targeted lift-offs have come and gone in the past, but this one has a reality to it that the others didn’t: the successor observatory to Hubble is now actually built.

All that is required is to ship the finished telescope to French Guiana, put it on the top of an Ariane rocket, light the engines and stand well back.

“It’s fantastic for everybody; it’s a real boost for all those that have worked on the project,” said Prof Gillian Wright, the senior UK scientist on Webb who co-leads one of the telescope’s four instrument packages.