NASA has been planning a successor to the respected and accomplished Hubble Space Telescope, or HST since the mid-1990s. If all goes to plan, NASA will launch the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST in 2018. The JWST will see farther and clearer with a light-collecting mirror twice the diameter of the HST's. It will also be able to see deeper into galaxies than Hubble could since it's optimized to the infrared. Even though it has been plagued delays and cost increases, this project is a tremendously ambitious and difficult mission.
Recently, Toronto science writer Dan Falk recently visited the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where the JWST's assembly, testing and launch preparations are held - and prepared this look at the project. He spoke with 2 of the JWST assembly scientists, Dr. Mark Clampin, Observatory Project Scientist for the telescope and Ray Lundquist, a lead engineer for the project.