Nasa begin months-long effort to focus James Webb space telescope

Nasa has embarked on the months-long, painstaking process of bringing its newly launched James Webb space telescope into focus, a task due for completion in time for the revolutionary eye in the sky to begin peering into the cosmos by early summer.

The alignment will take an additional three months, Lee Feinberg, the Webb optical telescope element manager at Goddard, said.

If all goes as planned, the telescope should be ready to capture its first science images in May, which would be processed over about another month before they can be released to the public, Feinberg said.

The $9bn telescope, described by Nasa as the premier space-science observatory of the next decade, will mainly view the cosmos in the infrared spectrum, allowing it to gaze through clouds of gas and dust where stars are being born. Hubble has operated primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.

The telescope is an international collaboration led by Nasa in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies.