WASHINGTON,Jan. 27, 2023/PRNewswire/ -- NASA's James Webb Space Telescope team has been selected to receive the 2023 John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr.,Award for Space Exploration, a top award from the Space Foundation. This annual award honors a space agency, company, or consortium of organizations in the realm of space exploration and discovery.
"The James Webb Space Telescope team represents the best of our humanity and an enduring pursuit to better understand the cosmos. Every new image is a new discovery," said NASA AdministratorBill Nelson. "Webbis the culmination of decades of persistence and once-unthinkable human ingenuity made possible by international partnerships. Together, we are unfolding the universe and inspiring the world."
The award will be presented at the Space Foundation's yearly opening ceremony of the Space Symposium inColoradoonApril 17.
"Within its first year of operations, the work and revelations by the James Webb Space Telescope team has opened an entirely new chapter of knowledge and inspiration that will forever change our lives and history," said Space Foundation CEOTom Zelibor. "This is an unparalleled achievement and is transforming astronomy and space science while delivering new inspiration and imagination to every generation and corner of our planet. The partnerships and collaborations between nations, researchers, industry members, and more have also highlighted the incredible things we can do together as we promote knowledge."
Webb, the world's premier space science telescope, launchedDec. 25, 2021. In 2022, theWebbteam successfully completed an intricate series of deployments tounfold the observatoryinto its final configuration in space. They then preciselyaligned its mirrorsto within nanometers, set up and tested its powerful instruments, and officiallybeganWebb'smissionto explore the infrared universe.
With its optics performing nearly twice as well as the mission required,Webbis discovering some of theearliest galaxiesever observed, peering through dusty clouds tosee stars forming, and delivering a more detailed view of theatmospheres of planets outside our solar systemthan ever before.Webbhas also captured new views of planets within our solar system, including theclearest look at Neptune's ringsin decades. The Swigert award, which pays tribute to NASA astronautJack Swigertfor his legacy of space exploration, will recognize the contributions of the team members who designed, developed, and now operate theWebbmission.
"Our vast and dedicated team on the James Webb Space Telescope mission is already bringing us closer and closer to seeing the earliest, most distant galaxies that shine in our universe," saidSandra Connelly, acting associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. "Webbis an international collaboration involving a group of thousands of diverse people that has launched NASA into a new era of world-class science and is revolutionizing our view of the cosmos."
Recent winners of the John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr. Award include NASA and theUniversity of ArizonaOSIRIS-REx team, the teams behind the NASA JPL Mars Ingenuity Helicopter and InSight-Mars Cube One, NASA Dawn, and Cassini.
Webb, an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), is the world's premier space science observatory. Its design pushed the boundaries of space telescope capabilities to solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.
NASA Headquarters inWashingtonoversees theWebbmission. NASA Goddard managesWebbfor the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners, including Ball Aerospace. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency's Johnson Space Center inHouston, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southernCalifornia, Marshall Space Flight Center inHuntsville, Alabama, Ames Research Center inCalifornia'sSilicon Valley, and others.
Recently, theWebbmission's accomplishments also have been recognized by organizations including theNational Space Club and Foundation,National Air and Space Museum,Aviation Week,Bloomberg Businessweek,Popular Science, andTIME.
For more information about theWebbmission, visit:
SOURCE NASA
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