Next-generation space telescope sets course for 2010 launch. NASA announced last week that the Next Generation Space Telescope will be named after James Webb, the administrator who led the agency during its glory days of the 1960s, which culminated in the Moon landing of July 1969. The James Webb Space Telescope, which is designed to continue operating for at least five years after its launch in 2010, is expected to cost $2.8 billion. The telescope, which will have a diameter of 6 metres and be optimized to view infrared light. A large light-collecting area and sensitive detectors will enable it to see galaxies that are fainter, older and farther away than any seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers are hoping they will be able to learn how large structures formed in the early Universe, and to observe the birth of stars and planets with unprecedented clarity. See the official site for the James Webb space telescope.