Astronomy TodaySpace Telescopes |
What will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope? |
If all of the servicing and updating of the Hubble Space Telescope is completed as planned, then it is scheduled to continue operating as a cutting-edge scientific instrument until at least the year 2016. Around that time (currently scheduled for 2018), the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope will be launched. Already under development, the James Webb Space Telescope will have a folding, segmented primary mirror nearly ten times the size of Hubble’s.