James Webb Space Telescope chief scientist Jane Rigby receives highest US civilian award
James Webb Space Telescope chief scientist Jane Rigby receives highest US civilian award
"I work on a telescope that does the impossible."
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The amount of data that has come out in the year since it's launch has jumped mankinds knowledge of the cosmos forward by leaps and bounds.
it's also further shown us just how little we know.
Yeah the JWST will go down as one of the most important pieces of scientific hardware ever created. She and all the NASA/ESA/CSA scientists who created it deserve all the medals. IIRC it was ESA's most viewed launch to date, I sure remember stressing tf out haha.
Given that they had a test failure that would have led to mission failure like 2 weeks before launch and said "yeah we figured it out, we're good" and launched the fucker, a little nail biting was justified.
They nailed it though.
Oh god yeah I remember. Legit $10Bn "we only got one of these" moment. They made the right call using the most reliable rocket and an equatorial launch too.