I’ve been binging space documentaries lately. And it just got me to thinking. I’ve been a fan of these types of documentaries since I was a kid.
Usually these shows are pretty good about telling you about upcoming space missions or space probed being built.
And not a single one of these shows mentions JWST. To the best of my knowledge, it took 25 years to get this telescope built. You’d think at least one of them would mention it.
I don’t think I recall hearing about it until like a few months before they launched. I remember there being a couple of delays until it finally launched on Christmas Day.
I’m just curious if anybody else remembers hearing talk of it before the actual event.
I don’t remember exactly when I first heard about the JWST, but it was a very long time before it was launched, and probably before it was actually known as the JWST – it was formally named in 2002, 19 years before it launched. I remember hearing about a “next generation space telescope” to replace the Hubble, that it would be bigger and better, and that it would operate primarily in the infrared in order to have better penetration into deep space. I remember thinking that was a strange decision, but it seems to be working well for the people doing the science.
The Next Generation Space Telescope became the James Webb Space Telescope and Thompson Ramo Woolridge (TRW) ‘merged with’ (aquired by) Northrop Grumman, both in 2002 as noted. Both Hubble and James Webb are based upon technology developed for the “Key Hole” (specifically the KH-11) electro-optical satellites although obviously using different optics and with very different operational parameters. NASA is planning the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (apparently someone has decided to informally rename it as just the “Roman Space Telescope”) and the Habitable Worlds Observatory (as well as proposals for the yet to be formalized X-Ray Great Observatory and Far-Infrared Great Observatory) as follow-on space observatories.
I see Stranger has provided the history of JWST. To add to this, when the project to build the spacecraft began, there were 6 key technologies that were not mature enough to begin construction. This was unprecedented in satellite production.
And the project was so secret that in 2013, a full scale model was built and toured the country, including SXSW.
But as @Stranger_On_A_Train 's link mentions, they’ve been at this since the 80s. Or even earlier if you count any telescope proposal (not just an HST replacement) that’s some variety of “big honking infrared space scope that sits at L2”.
