ust over 10 years late and 10 times over its original $1 billion estimated price tag, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finally launched on Christmas Day 2021, and it’s poised to transform astronomy forever. Unfurled, the joint project between NASA, the European and Canadian space agencies, and others is the size of a tennis court, and its honeycombed main mirror—designed and built by Westminster’s Ball Corporation—is 21 feet in diameter, about 13 feet wider than
