The Early History of JWST

Many institutions and organizations were involved in the creation and development of the James Webb Space Telescope, working with NASA and its partner agencies, ESA and CSA. Throughout, STScI was one of those playing a key role, including during the conception and early work on the mission. Work on the project began over 30 years ago at STScI with a challenge from Institute Director Riccardo Giacconi to “think about the next major mission beyond Hubble.” The development of a mission concept came in September 1989, with a workshop held at STScI before Hubble was launched. Titled The Next Generation: A 10 m Class UV-Visible-IR Successor to HST, the workshop covered the scientific opportunities and technological challenges of such a mission and built on earlier research up until that date.

The UV-Optical in Space Panel of the National Academies' Decadal Survey of 1990 provided momentum to the concept by recommending a 6-meter cooled space telescope as a successor to Hubble. Development of an 8-meter Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) concept over the next two years focused on a cooled visible and infrared telescope since it had become clear that it was technically impractical to include the ultraviolet capabilities.

In 1993, the Space Telescope Institute Council (STIC) appointed a committee to study 21st-century space-astronomy missions and two years later, the committee recommended a 4-meter telescope — smaller than the 8- to 10-meter NGST initially discussed, but retaining the very important capability of seeing infrared light. The eventual restoration of the NGST to 8-meter was due to NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, who noted that a 4-meter telescope was "such a modest thing."

For more about the early history of JWST, refer to Garth Illingworth’s article, NGST: The Early Days of JWST, in the STScI newsletter (2016, Volume 33, Issue 01). The timeline below outlines key milestones in the history of the James Webb Space Telescope.