Do You Know…That NASA’s newest deep-space telescope is named for an NC native?

Photos courtesy of NASA.

Next year, NASA will replace the Hubble Space Telescope with a new space telescope named after former Granville County resident and early NASA visionary James E. Webb. Under Webb’s leadership as administrator of NASA, the organization reached new heights in space exploration (see “Wake Electric Honors Local NASA Leader”).

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called JWST or Webb) is planned to be launched from French Guinea in spring of 2021. Once in orbit, Webb will be the most powerful and largest space telescope ever built (with a sunshield the size of a tennis court). Its infrared vision will peer back more than 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. It is only fitting that the telescope is named after NASA pioneer and Tally Ho native James Webb.