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The launch of the space telescope "James Webb," postponed until October 31, 2021 for pandemic coronavirus and technical problems. This was announced on Thursday, the National Aeronautics and space administration (NASA) of the United States.

"NASA now hopes that the launch date of the telescope "James Webb," from French Guiana will be October 31, 2021. The reason for this is the impact of the ongoing pandemic coronavirus, as well as technical difficulties", – reads the statement on the website of the American space Agency.

Earlier, the Deputy Director of NASA’s scientific Affairs Thomas Zurbuchen reported that the launch of the telescope "James Webb," scheduled for March 30, 2021, will be postponed to a later date in connection with the pandemic coronavirus. A specific date was not called.

The orbital telescope named after James Webb, the head of the program "Apollo" that allowed man to visit the moon, to replace space Observatory, "Hubble". It is anticipated to bring at the Lagrange point, located approximately 1.6 million km from Earth. This device is the fruit of cooperation between NASA, the Canadian space Agency and the European space Agency.

On "James Webb," it has a mirror diameter of 6.5 m, made up of 18 sections. Each of them has the shape of an equilateral hexagon and weighs about 40 kg. For their manufacture was chosen beryllium as the material is resistant to ultra low temperatures. A new telescope designed to study the Universe in the earliest stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, and the search for potentially habitable planets.