and here to tell us all about it is the
Nasa leader primarily responsible for successfully launching the telescope.
Gregory L Robinson director for the James Webb space telescope
program at Nasa. So Gregory thank you so much
for being here. This is so exciting to me
. I love hearing all this space stuff. But
what can we expect to see from these images you
guys are gonna release? So first Janet, thanks
for having me. I always enjoy talking about this
. Uh well we expect to see um the universe
different different from we've ever seen it. We have
missions that have shown us the universe for many years
, missions like spitzer and wires and even Hubble that
served us well. And Web is 100 times more
powerful than than Hubble if you could imagine that.
And this is what we're seeing right there, how
it's launched. That's that's after it was released from
the rocket on christmas morning morning in french Guiana in
South America, wow, it looks beautiful but it's
on this journey. So what will allow us to
see much, much clearer and deeper into the universe
And how far is this from earth that we're looking
at right there? Uh well it's it's um it's
orbit will end up in L two. Lagrange 20.2
million miles from Earth and Lagrange points are for stable
orbits. So you don't have to use much fuel
to maintain your the attitude and um so you can
have a much much longer life in space. Okay
, so once you get all of these images and
you start to release them and look at this data
, what happens to the telescope next? So next
we'll be finishing up in about a month as you
said um and we will complete all of our commissioning
phase all the checkout and focusing and and so on
. Then we'll be in science mode. So the
scientists will will be they would be at the trough
. I mean just collecting images and collecting data and
showing that to the world. So that will that
will start in the next few weeks. Um that
portion of it and I mean and this has taken
some time. This is one of the most expensive
and most complex missions that has been set forth for
Nasa. What has it taken to get to this
point? So to do bold things it takes time
often. It takes resources often and that's certainly the
case here. So what was in development about 20
years. Um so we had a few setbacks.
Just do the technology. The technology is extremely complex
. We have 10 new technologies on the web never
built and flown before And 10 is a lot for
a single mission. So technology takes a while to
mature uh system. This complex to do this kind
of science. That's a challenge as well. So
you have engineering challenges. Technology challenges. Um over
a long period of time, humans make mistakes.
We've had a few of those. We've corrected all
of that and now we're in a very good posture
and I'm sure all that cost millions of dollars.
So what can you tell other people out there to
help them understand why this needed to be done in
the importance of a mission like this. So,
the importance is several things. One is, it's
gonna show us 13.5 billion years and back, um
, right right before the Big Bang. So 12
, 300 million years after the Big Bang. So
we're looking back pretty deep into time in the universe
, which we haven't been able to do in that
range. Before. That's one piece. It's gonna
tell us a lot about what we call exoplanets today
, potential habitability of these planets and also look at
planetary bodies within our own solar system. Of course
, looking out away from the sun. So,
it's going to do a lot for us. So
, are you hoping anything to see anything circular or
surprises any aliens? Well, that's a lot of
people think of this space, but you think we'll
see any of that stuff as well? Well,
we haven't seen any aliens yet. Um, and
I don't know if we'll see any, but if
if they're out there, we might find some of
them. Okay, now, before we go,
I have to shout you out because you are not
only an amazing Nasa employee, but you are one
of the Time magazine's most 100 most influential people of
2022. How does that feel to get that honor
? It feels great. Um so just for the
record, I came on the web four years ago
, so I'm a baby in comparison. Uh so
it's it's certainly an honor to lead the team over
the goal line and I stressed team, there are
thousands of people behind me, beside me and in
front of me that made this possible. People incredibly
, incredibly smart. Uh so a whole team made
this possible. So I feel like I'm representing the
team with tom are you representing it very well because
this is a huge honor and an exciting moment for
you all to be able to release these. Where
can people see the images once they're put out there
? You can just go to the Nasa website and
slash web and you'll find any and everything you want
to you want to find. So, these images
will be our first science images that we released after
completing all the commissioning and we will also release all
of the images taken during the commissioning phase. Alright
, well we are looking forward to that. Thank
you so much Gregory Robinson. We appreciate all of
your time here