Nica's Blog

Freeway Park is practically my backyard. Currently I have a full sized replica of the James Webb Space Telescope in this park I consider my backyard. You may ask, "Why do you have a full sized replica of the James Webb Space Telescope in your 'backyard'?" It's because there is an astronomy convention going on in the Washington State Trade and Convention Center located in Freeway Park.

Frankly I was confused when they were setting it up. I thought it was just going to be pretentious art. Then I was hoping it was a death ray. Then I was told incorrectly it was a replica of the Hubble Space Telescope. Then I read a banner describing the entity as the James Webb Space Telescope. By the way, this is named after James Edwin Webb who was an administrator to NASA, not the Virginian Senator, or Jim Webb who did the score for The Last Unicorn animated movie.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be launching in 2013. Some of you may not realize that the good old Hubble Space Telescope is considered rather outdated, and the plan was to scrap it by now. The JWST will be far more sensitive and will be located further away from earth than the Hubble. It has sun shields to protect its ultra-sensitive sensors and will hang out at the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point.

I'm just excited to see it in my backyard. I wish Northrop Grumman and everyone else involved good luck on the real thing.