Here’s what you need to know.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, or Webb for short) is scheduled to launch on December 24, 2021, at 7:20 Eastern Standard Time.
It will blast off from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 ECA rocket, headed for an orbit around the second Lagrange point, or L2, where the gravitational pull of Earth is equal to the gravitational pull of the Sun.
Webb’s launch has to be carefully timed to put the telescope on the right path. It needs to leave Earth when our planet’s axis is tilted in the right direction, and when the launch site is pointed toward the right area of space. In other words, the James Webb Space Telescope launch has to happen during the right season and at the right time of day. On launch day, those requirements allow just a 30-minute window in which Webb will have to launch — or it will have to wait for another day.