NASA announced on May 10, 2007 that as the Webb telescope is being built, a docking ring will be added to it in case astronauts aboard the future Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle need to make minor adjustments to the telescope.

The docking ring will not allow repairs to it like the complicated repairs that have been made on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). However, astronauts will be able to do minor repair and servicing work on it such as unfolding solar arrays or un-sticking antennae.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, or simply Webb) is a planned space infrared observatory intended to partially replace the Hubble telescope. It is intended to be launched no earlier than the middle of 2013. The construction and operation of Webb is under the direction of NASA, along with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

The Webb will be positioned at a gravitationally stable point on the side of the Earth that is opposite from the Sun, approximately 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth at what is called the L2 (Lagrangian 2) point.

For more information about Webb, go to the ITWire article “James Webb Space Telescope: A look forward and backward in time”

The home NASA website for the James Webb Space Telescope is: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/.

The home ESA website for the Webb telescope is: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=29.

The home CSA website for JWST is: http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/satellites/jwst.asp.

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