The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully launched its strongest telescope James Webb Space Telescope into space at 7:20 AM EST Saturday. NASA stated that Webb launched to space on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, South America. The launch moment of the Webb, which is said to be the leading observatory of the next 10 years, was broadcast live on NASA’s website. While being considered the world’s most powerful and complex space observatory, Webb will settle into orbit about 1 million miles from Earth in about a month, and will begin collecting the first data and images in 2022. Also designed as the replacement for the aging Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope is named after James Edwin Webb, the former Administrator of NASA.

On the other hand, NASA was expecting to launch the Webb in 2018 at first, but launch had delayed due to technical difficulties and then the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.