The James Webb Space Telescope: Key Moments in its History
From "Napkin" to Lagrange Point
Robert Smith
Professor of History
University of Alberta - Edmonton
Sponsored by BAE Systems
About the Lecture
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – a joint enterprise of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency – is the most complex and in some ways the most powerful telescope ever built. And since its launch in 2021, JWST has produced a string of spectacular scientific results. JWST’s history, which includes a near-death experience at the hands of a U.S. congressional committee in 2011 when there was an effort to kill the project, raises a range of critical policy issues.
This lecture will discuss several key moments in JWST’s history, and what these have to say not just about JWST and the future of space astronomy, but also about very large-scale scientific enterprises more broadly, projects of such a scale that we can reasonably refer to them as “megascience.” The lecture will discuss similarities and differences in the policy contexts for JWST, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the ill-fated Superconducting Supercollider which was cancelled just before serious planning got under way for JWST. Hubble, for example, exemplified (after serious initial problems) the successful management of increasing scale, which was central to the broader success of large-scale science in the twentieth century. Hubble demonstrated the ability of “science managers” and astronomers to operate successfully in – and to shape – the prevailing “political economy” of science. The lecture will consider how JWST may be seen in this regard, and some of the lessons its history may have for future large scale science missions.
Selected Reading & Media References
Pierre Bely, et.al., “Genesis of the James Webb Space Telescope Architecture: The Designers’ Story,” astro-ph>arXiv:2501.09072 (2025).
Alan Dressler, editor, Exploration and the Search for Origins: A Vision for Ultraviolet-Optical-Infrared Space Astronomy (AURA, 1996).
Jonathan P. Gardner, John C. Mather, et.al., “The James Webb Space Telescope Mission,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 135(2023), 1-24.
Harley Thronson, “Britain in the early history of the James Webb Space Telescope,” Space Review, 21 October 2024.
Adam Mann, “Did the James Webb telescope ‘break the universe’? Maybe not,” Science News, 4 March 2024.
About the Speaker
Robert W. Smith is a Professor of History at the University of Alberta. For many years before that he was a staff member of the US National Air and Space Museum. In addition, he has served as an advisor to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, NASA, and the National Academy of Sciences, among others.
Robert is an author of over 50 research papers, most of them as sole author; author or coauthor of five books; and co-editor of three volumes. Publications of his have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
Robert’s first book was The Expanding Universe: Astronomy’s ‘Great Debate’, 1900–1931, and he has continued to publish on early twentieth century astronomy and cosmology throughout his career. While he has also written extensively on nineteenth century astronomy, his chief research area is the history of space astronomy, and he has a particular interest in the emergence of space astronomy as “megascience.” His research on the prelaunch history of the Hubble Space Telescope is summarized in his book, The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA, Science, Technology and Politics, which also includes contributions by Paul Hanle, Robert Kargon, and Joseph N. Tatarewicz. For more than two decades he has been following the progress of the James Webb Space Telescope project, and he is working on a history of the telescope.
Among other honors and awards, Robert was a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in the United States, held the Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution, and was the Sarton Lecturer for the History of Science Society at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been awarded the American Astronomical Society’s Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy, the History of Science Society’s Watson Davis Prize for The Space Telescope, and the Bunge Prize of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker and the Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für Physiklische Chemie for seminal contributions to the study of the history of scientific instruments.
Robert earned a BSc at Queen Mary College, University of London, Part III of the Mathematics Tripos at the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science, at Cambridge University.
Social Media
LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/robert-smith-205584bb
X (Twitter) account(s) handle(s): @RobertS1795039
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-Smith-46?ev=hdr_xprf
Minutes
On February 21, 2025, Members of the Society and guests joined the speaker for a reception and dinner at 5:45 PM in the Members’ Dining Room at the Cosmos Club. Thereafter they joined other attendees in the Powell Auditorium for the lecture proceedings. In the Powell Auditorium of the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., President Larry Millstein called the lecture portion of the 2,510th meeting of the Society to order at 8:01 p.m. ET. He began by welcoming attendees, thanking sponsors for their support and announcing new members. Robert Thompson then read the minutes of the previous meeting which included the lecture by Michael Falkowski and Michael Seablom, titled “Remote Sensing of Wildfires”. The minutes were approved as read.
President Millstein then introduced the speaker for the evening, Robert Smith, of the University of Alberta- Edmonton. His lecture was titled “The James Webb Space Telescope: Key Moments in its History”.
The speaker began by saying that his talk would cover a series of “key moments” in the development of JWST, rather than the technical details. The first key moments were in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when many prominent researchers predicted that the future of astronomy would yield only minor improvements in observation and analysis. Smith claimed that at the dawn of the 20th century, it was widely believed that the universe consisted of only one galaxy, and that the field of astronomy was reaching a point of diminishing returns.
The speaker then discussed the development of large, powerful telescopes, including the 100-inch Hooker telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory, completed in 1917. He recounted how astronomers like Edwin Hubble used these new instruments to make observations that he called “transformative”. He discussed Henrietta Leavitt’s “Period-Luminosity relationship” for Cepheid variable stars, which was critical in confirming the existence of other galaxies. Smith claimed that by the late 1920’s, it was widely accepted that the universe consisted of a large number of galaxies.
Smith then discussed the launch of V2 rockets, captured from Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War. He said that with this program, started in 1946, astronomers began to study the cosmos from above Earth’s atmosphere. He said that by the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, we had a range of devices which were employed to carry scientific instruments very high in the Earth’s atmosphere, or beyond it. In October of 1957, the USSR successfully launched Sputnik 1 and placed it in low Earth orbit. While this satellite contained no scientific instruments, Smith claimed that it created a huge response in space activities, and as a result “Science went along for the ride.” At this point, he said, Cold War tensions led the Federal Government to begin funding science above the Earth’s atmosphere.
The speaker then discussed “pan-chromatic space astronomy”, which included the UHURU X-ray satellite (1970), the International Ultraviolet Explorer (1978), and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (1983). He described the launch of Hubble in 1990, the spherical aberration problems with Hubble’s mirror, and its subsequent repair in 1993. Smith claimed that Hubble was transformed from one of the biggest scientific failures, being derided and ridiculed in popular culture, to the greatest scientific come-back story of our time. He emphasized that Hubble’s success was critical to JWST, saying that without Hubble’s repair, it was impossible to envision Hubble’s successor.
The speaker then discussed advances in infrared detectors which occurred throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, and other technological developments which he called “staggering advances in scientific capability.” Smith claimed that the Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars” project provided billions of dollars of investment into infrared technologies, which were eventually leveraged by JWST. He discussed how these events led the Dressler Committee to recommend the development of an infrared, space-based, observatory in 1996.
Smith describe the formal start of the project in 2002, when the name was changed from the “Next Generation Space Telescope” to the “James Webb Space Telescope”. He mentioned the fact that a congressional committee “zeroed-out” the budget for JWST in July of 2011, and that senator Barbara Mikulski organized a coalition of politicians that eventually overturned this decision. Smith contrasted the political and funding situations between JWST and the Superconducting Super Collider, which was cancelled in 1993.
While discussing some details of the construction of JWST, Smith showed images of the 18-segment, gold-coated main mirror, the structure of the spacecraft, the 4 primary onboard instruments, and the folding, deployable sun shield. He described the launch on an Ariane V rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in December 2021. He showed data from JWST, including deep-field images and exo-planet detection. Smith ended his talk by listing what he deemed to be the most important points for successful completion of scientific “Mega Projects”, including: scientific needs, institutional needs, political feasibility, public advocacy, and patronage considerations.
The lecture was followed by a Question and Answer session.
A member asked how the advent of commercial space travel would affect future space-based observatories, specifically asking about the role of political influence. Smith’s opinion was that these “Mega Projects” would never break free of political influence.
A member asked about the role of China in space-based observatories. Smith responded that he was unaware of any substantial Chinese efforts in this area. However, he re-directed the question to an audience member with knowledge of the subject, who confirmed that the Chinese government appears to be concentrating on ground-based systems.
A guest on the live stream asked what influence the world’s first space telescope, the International Ultraviolet Explorer, had on JWST. Smith replied that although there were very few direct, technological influences, many of the researchers associated with the IUE went on to work with Hubble and JWST, and in that sense, the influences were significant.
After the question and answer period, President Millstein thanked the speaker and presented him with a PSW rosette, a signed copy of the announcement of his talk, and a signed copy of Volume 17 of the PSW Bulletin. He then announced speakers of up-coming lectures, made a number of housekeeping announcements, and invited guests to join the Society. He adjourned the 2,510th meeting of the society at 10:00 pm ET.
Temperature in Washington, DC: -0.6° Celsius
Weather: Fair
Audience in the Powell auditorium: 59
Viewers on the live stream: 51
For a total of 110 viewers
Views of the video in the first two weeks: 556
Respectfully submitted, Scott Mathews: Recording Secretary