Present from the Beginning

In 1996, a team of astronomers and engineers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore began sketching the earliest concepts for what would become the James Webb Space Telescope. Twenty-six years passed before it launched on Christmas morning, 2021. Some of those original team members were still part of the project — people who had dreamed of this instrument before the first mirror segment was polished, before the sunshield was designed, before a single line of flight code was written.…