The Webb telescope sets off

On this day in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope launched from French Guiana, in South America, folded up tight inside the top of a rocket. Over the next weeks, it slowly unfolded its golden mirror and a sunshield the size of a tennis court, on its way to a spot a million miles from Earth.

Why it mattered

Webb can see light from some of the very first galaxies, light that set out toward us long before the Earth existed.