James Webb Space Telescope arrives At Its Final Orbit

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA has confirmed that the remote observatory James Webb Space Telescope has successfully entered its final orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (aka L2) after one last course correction burn.

NASA explained that the telescope's primary mirror segments and secondary mirror have already been deployed and they will wait until the summer for the first imagery. NASA will spend the next several months readying the JWST for service, including a three-month optics alignment process.

NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson congratulated the team for a successful job and he is expecting to see "Webb's first new view of the universe."

“Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb’s safe arrival at L2 today. We’re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can’t wait to see Webb’s first new views of the universe this summer!”

The L2 orbit provides a largely unobstructed view of space while giving the spacecraft a cold, interference-free position that helps its instruments live up to their full potential. The JWST is expected to study the early Universe using infrared light, providing data that wouldn't be available from an Earth orbit telescope like Hubble.

The arrival to final orbit has proved that NASA can successfully launch and deploy a sophisticated observatory far from Earth.