The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's next major observatory, is undergoing the latest ground trial

NASA and its partners working on the James Webb Space Telescope have completed their final experiments at the giant observatory and are in the process of preparing for a trip to a South American spaceport for launch later this year.

Conceived more than 30 years ago as a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb will be the largest observatory ever put into orbit. It is designed to use its infrared eyes to look further into the story of the universe than ever before. With its 6.5-meter diameter gold-plated mirror, the telescope will try to answer questions about the formation of the first stars and galaxies outside the darkness of the primitive universe.

At 44 feet (13.2 meters) long and 14 feet (4.2 m) wide, the telescope is about the size of a large tractor-trailer truck, fitted with intricate sun shades that could cover a tennis court once unfolded.

The program has experienced many delays, not only as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it seems finally on its way to producing groundbreaking astronomical observations. The testing, which took place at the facilities of prime contractor Northrop Grumman in California, made sure that nothing would go wrong with the more than $10 billion spacecraft during launch and once in space.

"NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has reached a major turning point on its path toward launch with the completion of final observatory integration and testing," Gregory Robinson, Webb's program director at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. "We have a tremendously dedicated workforce who brought us to the finish line, and we are very excited to see that Webb is ready for launch and will soon be on that science journey."

Engineering teams are now required to ensure that the 7.2-tonne (6.5-tonne) telescope safely travels to the European spaceport of Kourou, French Guiana. NASA indicated in the statement that preparations for navigation will be finalized in September. James Webb will then travel from California by sea, sealed in a 100 feet long (30 meters) safety container. It will cross the Panama Canal and reach Kourou at least 55 days before the launch date, according to an announcement from the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA, NASA's partner in the James Webb Space Telescope project, is providing the launch aboard its seasoned Ariane 5 rocket, which is considered one of the most reliable launch vehicles currently available.

In parallel with the transportation, teams at Webb's Mission Operations Center (MOC) at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore will continue testing the complex communications network that will ensure that commands can be relayed to the precious telescope swiftly and seamlessly.

Once in Kourou, the telescope will undergo further checks before being refueled and then coupled to the summit of Ariane 5.

"After completing the final steps of the James Webb Space Telescope's testing regimen, I can't help but see the reflections of the thousands of individuals who have dedicated so much of their lives to Webb, every time I look at that beautiful gold mirror," Bill Ochs, Webb project manager for NASA Goddard, said in the statement.

The telescope will observe the Universe without being disturbed by terrestrial influences from a viewpoint around Lagrangian Point 2 (L2). Located some 900,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth, L2 is one of five points around the sun and Earth where the gravitational forces of both bodies are in balance. A spacecraft located at one of these points orbits the Sun with the Earth and maintains a steady position relative to the planet. The famous Hubble, by comparison, orbits the Earth at a height of just 330 miles (545 km).

There is, however, one question that stands in the way of the Great Telescope's mission: its name, given in honor of James Webb, NASA administrator in the 1960s. Webb, much of whose success is attributed to the agency's Apollo lunar exploration program, was also a strong supporter of science. But according to the claims, he also created another legacy, that of homophobia and persecution of LGBT experts. The journal Nature recently reported that NASA is investigating Webb's past transgression to see whether there is sufficient ground to remove the honor of having the greatest astronomical observatory of all time named after him.