The most powerful space telescope ever built has officially left Earth. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope blasted off on Dec. 25 at 7:20 a.m. Eastern from a European spaceport in French Guiana, unleashing a rumble that could be felt in the control center.
“Go Webb!” range operations manager Jean-Luc Voyer called out after the spacecraft completed a crucial maneuver soon after liftoff. Cheers erupted in the control room. Mission members in face masks donned bright red Santa hats in celebration of the successful Christmas Day launch.
The roughly $10 billion observatory, which is bigger and more sophisticated than the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, has been in the works since the late 1980s. What it finds could revolutionize our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Watch the key moment below:
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