NASA Names New Space Telescope

AP via Yahoo! ^ | Tue Sep 10, 1:32 PM ET | Associated Press

[Momaw Nadon]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new space telescope will be named for James E. Webb, the administrator of NASA during the Apollo lunar exploration program, the space agency announced Tuesday.

TRW, a Redondo Beach, Calif. firm, will be the lead contractor for the $824.8 million James Webb Telescope, NASA said. The orbiting astronomy observatory, once called the Next Generation Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch in 2010.

NASA said the craft will be rocketed 940,000 miles into space and parked at Lagrange Point 2, an area in space that is balanced between the gravity of the Earth and the Sun.

The craft will be shaded from sunlight by a tennis-court-sized shield, enabling the telescope to maintain a temperature of about minus 370 degrees. This will increase the telescope's sensitivity to infrared, or heat, radiation from deep space.

The new telescope will have a primary light-collecting mirror of at least 20 feet in diameter, more than twice the eight-foot mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope ( news - web sites). The larger mirror along with the orbital position of the craft will enable the new telescope to probe deeper into the universe than the Hubble. The Webb's telescope mirror will be segmented and folded during launch and during the three-month voyage to the Lagrange Point 2. Once there, engineers will send a signal commanding the mirror to unfold and snap into place.

There will be three principal instruments on board, all designed to gather images of the universe in the infrared parts of the light spectrum. Officials said this will enable the Webb to gather new information about how stars and galaxies formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the theoretical beginning of the universe about 14 billion years ago. The earliest galaxies formed after the Big Bang are thought to be visible from Earth orbit only in the infrared.

The Webb will also be able to study the formation of planets and to search for dark matter, the mysterious, unseen mass that is thought to make up about 90 percent of the matter in the universe.

James E. Webb was NASA's second administrator, serving from Feb. 14, 1961 to Oct. 7, 1968. That period included NASA's early attempts to build rockets and to put men into space. By the time he left office, the space agency was on the brink of sending men to the moon, with the first landing, by Apollo 11, coming in July, 1969, just months after his retirement. Webb also directed a vigorous space exploration program using robot craft to probe other planets.

Webb died in 1992 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.

Sean O'Keefe, NASA's current administrator, said that it was fitting to name the new telescope for Webb, who "took our nation on its first voyages of exploration, turning our imagination into reality.

"He laid the foundations at NASA for one of the most successful periods of astronomical discovery," O'Keefe said of Webb.

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[The_Victor]

So now NASA's two orbital telescopes are Webb, Hubble.

Are we sure we want to do this?

[Pistolshot]

Pretty neat...IF they don't have the same optics problem the Hubbel did. That took 2 missions to repair.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

That was my first thought ...

[John W]

That rings a bell.Wasn't Webb's goal at DOJ to research the supposed government UFO cover-up?

[ChadGore]

Isn't this al gores screen saver ?

[John W]

NEW YORK POST
Sunday, November 23, 1997

BILL WANTED UFO PROBE: HUBBEL BOOK


By DEBORAH ORIN
Washington Bureau Chief

President Clinton was intrigued by UFOs and wanted to know if they
really existed, says a new book by his golfing pal, disgraced Justice
Department official Webb Hubbell. Hubbell says finding out about UFOs
was one of the top priorities Clinton gave him in sending him over to a
job as one of Atorney General Janet Reno's top deputies.
"'Webb,' (Clinton) had said, 'if I put you over at Justice I want you
to find the answers to two questions for me,'" Hubbell recounts. "'One,
who killed JFK. And two, are there UFOs.' "(Clinton) was dead
serious. I had looked into both, but wasn't satisfied with the answers
I was getting," Hubbell adds.

Hubbell describes his failure to find out about JFK and UFOs as a big
regret when he had to resign as associate attorney general and pleaded
guilty to bilking law clients of $482,000.
Whitewater figure Jim McDougal has said Hubbell who worked closely
with Mrs. Clinton and former White House lawyer Vincent Foster at little
Rock's Rose law Firm-"knows where the bodies are buried" on the land
deal, but he stays pretty closed-mouthed in the book "FRIENDS IN HIGH
PLACES."
The book touched off a courtroom battle when Whitewater counsel Ken
Starr tried to subpoena early drafts. Starr backed off, and in any case
Hubbell's book insists he can't remember much.
But Hubbell does toss out a tantalizing aside in examining why Bill
Clinton decided against running for president in 1988: a remark from
Hillary that, "We've got to straighten up Whitewater."

[Greybird]

Posting entirely irrelevant (but oh-so-punny) followups like this helps create days when, to me, the only path to sanity is to IGNORE all the FReeper comments.

This is an immense scientific achievement, entirely apart from the platform it will provide for decades of other research. It deserves more respect.

[TommyDale]

NASA's next space telescope will be named after Webb Hubbell's love child.

[OXENinFLA]

LOL

[Living Free in NH]

So now NASA's two orbital telescopes are Webb, Hubble.

Are we sure we want to do this?

You forgot the other orbiting telescope: The CHANDRA (no relation to Miss Levy) X-ray Observatory.

[anymouse]

Bawahahahah!

Webb & Hubble, staring into the blackness looking for signs of intellegence. :)

They launched another telescope called the "Foster," but it mysteriously self-destructed before reaching orbit, leaving many questions about the cause, with little plausible evidence of what killed it. :)

[anymouse]

Although there is no Lewinski telescope, the other grand orbiting telescope spacecraft that NASA flew was called the GRO. ;)

You can connect the dots on that one, but the acronym stands for Gamma Ray Observatory.

[PISANO]

LMAO what a riot!

[tm22721]

IF they don't have the same optics problem the Hubbel did.

They'd better do a dry run in low earth orbit. The Shuttle can't get out to 94,000 miles...

BUMP

[crypt2k]

"Just don't point it at the Sun!"