NASA announced that the James Webb Space Telescope reached its final destination, the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2), located 1.5 million kilometers from our planet.
According to official information, this final maneuver was carried out after the activation of the ship’s thrusters for five minutes.
From this point, those in charge of the mission must align the telescope’s optics, a process that will take three months. After this stage, the apparatus will begin to observe distant galaxies with unprecedented precision.
🏠 Home, home on Lagrange! We successfully completed our burn to start #NASAWebb on its orbit of the 2nd Lagrange point (L2), about a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth. It will orbit the Sun, in line with Earth, as it orbits L2. https://t.co/bsIU3vccAj #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/WDhuANEP5h
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) January 24, 2022
“Webb, welcome home! Congratulations to the team for all their hard work to ensure Webb’s safe arrival at L2 today. We are one step closer to discovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can’t wait to see the first new views of the Webb universe this summer,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
The agency also highlights that the approach was carried out successfully. The good news is that the device used as little fuel as possible, thus leaving a good reserve for small orbit corrections.
This could extend its useful life beyond the estimated time of five or ten years.
James Webb is currently in a strategic location, a point of gravitational equilibrium where the influence of the Earth and the Sun are not a threat to his operating orbit.
Thus, according to the engineers in charge, the telescope will be able to observe the cosmos from a unique perspective.