NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope team receives the Space Foundation’s top prize, the 2023 John L. “Jack” Swigert Jr. Selected to receive the Space Exploration Award. This annual award is given to a space agency, company or consortium of organizations in the field of space exploration and exploration.

“The James Webb Space Telescope team represents the best of our humanity and our ongoing quest to better understand the universe. “Every new image is a new discovery,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Webb is the culmination of decades of perseverance and the once unthinkable human genius made possible by international partnerships. Together we open the universe and inspire the world.”

The award will be presented at the annual opening ceremony of the Space Symposium in Colorado on April 17.

“In its first year of operation, the James Webb Space Telescope team has opened a whole new chapter in knowledge and inspiration that will change our lives and our history forever,” said Tom Zelibor, CEO of the Space Foundation. “This is an unprecedented achievement that will transform astronomy and space science, providing new inspiration and imagination to every corner and generation of our planet. Partnerships and collaborations between countries, researchers, industry and others also highlighted the incredible things we can do together to advance knowledge.”

Webb, the world’s leading space science telescope, was launched on December 25, 2021. In 2022, the Webb team successfully completed a complex series of deployments to put the observatory in its final configuration in space. They then aligned their mirrors precisely to the nanometer, tuned and tested powerful instruments, and officially launched Webb’s mission to explore the infrared universe.

With optics that perform nearly twice as well as required for the mission, Webb is exploring some of the oldest galaxies ever observed, peering through dust clouds to see star formation, and providing ever-more detailed images of planetary atmospheres. Solar system. before. Webb also made new images of the planets in our solar system, including the clearest view of Neptune’s rings in recent years. Honoring NASA astronaut Jack Swigert for his legacy in space exploration, the Swigert Award will recognize the contributions of team members who designed, developed, and currently run the Webb mission.

“Our massive and dedicated James Webb Space Telescope mission team is already bringing us closer to seeing the oldest, most distant galaxies in our universe shine,” said Sandra Connelly, acting director of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. . “Webb is an international collaboration involving thousands of different people that ushers NASA into a new era in world-class science and revolutionizes our view of space.”