Space Telescope Launch Delayed after Site Incident

The James Webb Space Telescope stands in the S5 Payload Preparation Facility (EPCU-S5) at The Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana jody amiet AFP
The James Webb Space Telescope stands in the S5 Payload Preparation Facility (EPCU-S5) at The Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana jody amiet AFP
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Space Telescope Launch Delayed after Site Incident

The James Webb Space Telescope stands in the S5 Payload Preparation Facility (EPCU-S5) at The Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana jody amiet AFP
The James Webb Space Telescope stands in the S5 Payload Preparation Facility (EPCU-S5) at The Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana jody amiet AFP

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which astronomers hope will herald a new era of discovery, has been delayed until December 22 after an accident at its launch facility in French Guiana, NASA said Monday.

Technicians were preparing to attach the $10 billion observatory to a launch vehicle adapter, used to fix it to the upper stage of an Ariane 5 rocket, AFP said.

"A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band – which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter – caused a vibration throughout the observatory," the US space agency said in a blog post, adding that the incident occurred while operations were taking place "under Arianespace overall responsibility."

Arianespace is the French launch company contracted to launch the telescope.

A NASA-led team is now investigating how it happened and testing "to determine with certainty the incident did not damage any components."

The space telescope was originally supposed to launch on December 18, so for now the delay is only a few days.

Researchers want to use the Webb space telescope, the largest and most powerful ever built, to look back in time over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies that formed, a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

A key feature is its ability to detect infrared, as by the time the light from the first objects reaches our telescopes, it has shifted toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum as a result of the universe's expansion.



Beijing Warns of Geological Disasters as Storms Lash Baoding Again

 Pedestrians are reflected in rainwater as they cross the street after the downpour subside in Beijing, China, Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
Pedestrians are reflected in rainwater as they cross the street after the downpour subside in Beijing, China, Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
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Beijing Warns of Geological Disasters as Storms Lash Baoding Again

 Pedestrians are reflected in rainwater as they cross the street after the downpour subside in Beijing, China, Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
Pedestrians are reflected in rainwater as they cross the street after the downpour subside in Beijing, China, Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)

Beijing issued on Saturday a warning for geological disasters including landslides and mudslides after intense rainfall the day before, with storms circulating China's north unleashing for a second time a year's rain on nearby Baoding.

The Beijing meteorological agency's alert for 10 of the city's 16 districts came as local authorities also warned of flash floods in mountainous areas.

In neighboring Hebei, extreme overnight rains in Fuping, a part of the industrial city of Baoding, saw records broken at a local weather station with 145 mm (5.7 inches) per hour of precipitation, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The Xizhuang station recorded a maximum rainfall of 540 mm over an eight-hour period, superseding Baoding's average annual rainfall of about 500 mm.

Just a day ago, storms dumped similar amounts of precipitation on Yi, another part of Baoding.

The rain held destructive power, CCTV said, affecting more than 46,000 people and forcing 4,655 of them to evacuate.

Northern China has witnessed record-breaking precipitation in recent years, exposing densely populated cities including Beijing to flood risks. Some scientists link the higher rainfall in China's usually arid north to global warming.

China's Water Resources Ministry has issued targeted warnings to 11 provinces and regions, including Beijing and Hebei, for floods arising from small and medium-sized rivers and gushing torrents from mountains.

The alert also sought to ensure that reservoirs and silt dams are safe during floods.

Across the country, heavy rainfall has caused 13 rivers scattered through seven provinces to swell past their flood warning levels by as much as 1.4 m (4.6 feet), CCTV reported, citing the ministry's findings on Saturday morning.

Among them, one tributary of Inner Mongolia's Dahei River and another of Shaanxi's Yanhe River recorded their biggest floods since records began.

The storms are part of the broader pattern of extreme weather across China due to the East Asian monsoon, which has caused disruptions in the world's second-largest economy.

In a separate bulletin, CCTV also said two small reservoirs in northeastern Jilin province were operating above the flood limit, as rivers continue to swell. Local authorities have begun activating five large reservoirs to help with flood water discharge.

Extreme rainfall and severe flooding are highly monitored by Chinese authorities as they challenge the country's ageing flood defenses, threaten to displace millions, and wreak havoc on a $2.8 trillion agricultural sector.