The Nail-Biting Journey of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Is About to Begin

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September 23, 2021

Dear Reader, Our lead story this week concerns NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a $10-billion observatory designed to revolutionize astrophysics and cosmology--provided it can overcome a few worrisome obstacles. Before it can help rewrite our science textbooks, Webb first has to endure a long sea voyage, a nailbiting rocket launch, and a high-stakes deployment sequence as it travels 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to its deep-space destination. Elsewhere this week, we have stories about a proposed new form of dark energy, the announcement of a landing site for a future lunar rover, the dubious benefits of billionaire-funded private spaceflights, and more. Read on!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Astronomy The Nail-Biting Journey of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Is About to Begin Before it can study the first stars and galaxies, the observatory must endure a sea voyage, a rocket launch and an all-or-nothing deployment sequence in deep space By Nikk Ogasa

Space Exploration Don't Count on Billionaires to Get Humanity into Space Far from pioneering wide access to orbit, privately funded spaceflight is geared to perpetuate inequities in space and on Earth By Lucianne Walkowicz

Space Exploration SpaceX's Starship Could Rocket-Boost Research in Space The platform could aid climate science, space junk cleanup and planetary exploration By Maddie Bender

Space Exploration SpaceX's Private Inspiration4 Crew Is Back on Earth The crew's splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean marks the historic mission's end By Amy Thompson,SPACE.com

Space Exploration SpaceX Launches Four Civilians into Orbit on Historic Inspiration4 Flight The crew will spend the next few days in space before returning to Earth in the fully autonomous Dragon module By Amy Thompson,SPACE.com

Cosmology New Type of Dark Energy Could Solve Universe Expansion Mystery Hints of a previously unknown, primordial form of the substance could explain why the cosmos now seems to be expanding faster than theory predicts By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Planetary Science NASA Unveils Ice-Hunting VIPER Rover's Lunar Landing Site The space agency's first-ever robotic moon rover will touch down in late 2023 just west of Nobile, a crater near the lunar south pole By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Extraterrestrial Life Astronomers Should Be Willing to Look Closer at Weird Objects in the Sky The Galileo Project seeks to train telescopes on unidentified aerial phenomena By Avi Loeb

Quantum Physics Is There a Thing, or a Relationship between Things, at the Bottom of Things? Quantum mechanics inspires us to speculate that interactions between entities, not entities in themselves, are fundamental to reality By John Horgan

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QUOTE OF THE DAY "This is like an orchestra concert with hundreds of people all playing different instruments. Everybody has to have practiced their part and all the instruments have to be ready. And then we play the music." Astronomer Heidi Hammel, on the intricate choreography required for deploying and commissioning NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

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FROM THE ARCHIVE How a Dispute over a Single Number Became a Cosmological Crisis Two divergent measurements of how fast the universe is expanding cannot both be right. Something must give—but what? By Richard Panek | March 2020

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