After decades of work, the launch is here

Contributors: Verge Staff

On Christmas Day, NASA is slated to launch one of its most anticipated spacecraft in decades: a next-generation observatory dubbed the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. It’s taken roughly 25 years for NASA to get this vehicle ready for launch, and sending it to space is an incredibly complex endeavor. But if everything works out just right, JWST promises to see deeper into the Universe than ever before, peering at some of the most ancient stars and galaxies while deepening our understanding of astrophysics.

Follow along with all of our updates as NASA prepares to send this massive new telescope into space.