How Long Will The James Webb Space Telescope Last? Here’s What We Know

The James Webb Space Telescope is one of the most incredible achievements in space exploration — but exactly how long will the telescope last for conducting its advanced research? Shortly after the launch of Hubble in 1990, scientists and astronomers quickly got to work on its successor. The goal was to create a telescope more powerful and capable than Hubble would ever be capable of, thus providing humanity with an even better instrument to peer into the wonders of the universe.

As it’s been well-documented over the years, the road to building and launching Hubble’s successor wasn’t an easy one. It originally started as the ‘Next Generation Space Telescope’ in 1996, but then switched to the current ‘James Webb’ name in 2002. Following years of work and billions of dollars spent, the JWST finally had a successful launch on December 25, 2021. Its goal is to travel 930,000 miles away from Earth and use its advanced imaging tech to look at some of the youngest galaxies in the universe. If JWST is successful in its mission, it’ll essentially allow astronomers to go back in time and see what galaxies looked like hundreds of millions of years ago.

Given the enormous potential of the James Webb telescope, there’s one question on a lot of people’s minds: How long will the thing last? Every space telescope/orbiter/probe has a limited amount of fuel it can take with it — thus resulting in a finite amount of time it can be operational. Leading up to its launch, NASA had two rough goals set for JWST. At a bare minimum, James Webb was estimated to last ‘at least’ 5 and 1/2 years. More realistically, however, NASA was hoping for a lifespan of 10+ years. The exciting part? It could very well be even longer than that.

James Webb Could Last As Long As 20 Years

On December 29, 2021, NASA confirmed that the overwhelmingly successful launch from JWST’s Ariane 5 rocket had saved much of the telescope’s onboard fuel (as had the telescope’s precise course correction burns). Because of these things, NASA announced that James Webb “should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime.” Another update on January 8, 2022, brought even more exciting news. Commenting on the remaining fuel for James Webb, mission systems engineer Mike Menzel said, “Roughly speaking, it’s around 20 years.”

While that number is subject to change in the coming months and years ahead, it’s an enormously exciting milestone to look forward to. This is a telescope that was in production for over two decades and cost NASA over $10 billion. Getting 10 years of science operations out of it would have been incredible — but to potentially double its lifespan and expect 20 years of work is astounding.

Will James Webb actually hit that 20-year goal? No one can say with absolute certainty, but the odds are in its favor. Along with the incredibly smooth launch and setup process, NASA tends to underestimate the life of its instruments. The Hubble telescope was originally estimated to last around 15 years following its launch in 1990. Here in 2022, the telescope is still operational and should remain that way until 2030 or 2040. Considering how critical the James Webb Space Telescope will be in growing our understanding of the universe, that’s nothing short of exciting.

Source: NASA (1), (2)

About The Author

Joe Maring
(1530 Articles Published)

Joe has been actively writing and talking about consumer tech since 2012. His biggest passion lies with smartphones, but he’s happy to talk your ear off about just about anything with a CPU. He lives in Kalamazoo, MI with his wife, two cats, and pit bull/boxer mix.

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