NASA developed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with cooperation from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The telescope is named after NASA Administrator James E Webb, who served from 1916 to 1968 and was a key figure in the Apollo programme. It will take the place of NASA's flagship astrophysics mission, the Hubble Space Telescope. JWST was launched on Ariane flight VA256 on December 25, 2021.

The world's largest and most powerful space telescope, atop a European Ariane 5 rocket from South America's French Guiana. It will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observations of some distant events and objects in the Universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets. It is a $10-billion telescope, which is 100 times more powerful than its predecessor Hubble, will orbit 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth. It's designed to observe the very first galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago.