The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed primarily to conduct infrared astronomy named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Mercury, Gemini, and much of the Apollo programs. JWST is the largest telescope ever launched into space. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led development of the telescope in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The JWST was launched 25 December 2021 on an ESA Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana and is intended to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics. Although, JWST will not be in orbit around the Earth, like the Hubble Space Telescope is. It will actually orbit the Sun, 1 million miles away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.
JWST will be able to see what the universe looked like around a quarter of a billion years after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies started to form.