Hubble Orbiting Space Telescope and replacement (planned for 2018 launch) - The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST)

Hubble, with an 8 foot mirror, launched April 24, 1990, orbits at 375 miles above the earth. Following is a 3 year old tribute to the Hubble Space Telescope on its 20th anniversary in space. This beautiful video surveys the incredible accomplishments of this revolutionary instrument: everybody's favorite telescope. (See also, Hubble Space Telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
(15:54 min)


Next Up and even more exciting: in early 2018 - The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. Webb will have a larger mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto a rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once Webb is in outer space. Webb will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope will soar through space at the Second Sun-Earth Lagrange Point, an orbit far beyond Earth's Moon. Webb's giant sunshield will protect it from stray heat and light, while its large mirror enables it to effectively capture infrared light, bringing us the clearest picture ever of objects that emit this invisible radiation — early galaxies, just-forming stars, clouds of gas and dust, and much more.
Webb has an ambitious design that tackles the two main challenges for an infrared telescope: it has to have a large mirror, in order to best capture the long infrared wavelength; and it has to be kept cold, in order to keep unwanted sources of infrared from interfering with the emissions it attempts to detect. (See also: James Webb Space Telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Stanwebb’s Weblog

Most of you know that, since 2003 - and for the last ten years, I have been writing and publishing on various topics for the Internet.
On July 26, 2013 I turned 69 years old and will now just enjoy my retirement and not continue to update most any of those websites and/or hyperlinks.
I will now write about various items that may only be of interest me. I'll post those on only one personal Weblog. here at http://stanwebb.wordpress.com/
In setting this up, I noticed that there might be some problems (IE: duplication of notifications to you about various articles). My apologies if this happens to you. We'll get this sorted out soon. If you are a friend or close family member you will already have my personal email address.
I hope you are having a great summer.
Stan G. Webb
http://stanwebb.wordpress.com/