President Joe Biden will unveil the first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Monday July 11, directly from the White House, NASA announced.
You can watch the Monday reveal live here on Space.com at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) , courtesy of NASA, or directly on NASA TV.
The Monday release will be the first time the public will get a glimpse of a full-color, science-grade image from the James Webb Space Telescope, the most complex and expensive observatory ever built.
Announced on Sunday, July 10, the event comes less than 24 hours ahead of the main release of the first science-grade images from the observatory, which is scheduled to begin at 9.45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT).
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will provide remarks, and the image will simultaneously be released to the public via NASA’s website, NASA said in a statement.
Live updates: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope mission Related: How the James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures
The main image release event will take place on July 12, beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT). You can watch all the excitement here at Space.com courtesy of NASA or directly through the agency’s website (opens in new tab). Additional events will take place later in the day and on July 13.
The release comes after half a year of in-space commissioning work, NASA will release the first science images from its next-generation space observatory in July. Here’s how you can tune in to the historic event for free.
The James Webb Space Telescope carries four cutting-edge instruments designed to examine everything from solar system objects to distant, old galaxies formed in the early universe only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The instruments are roughly halfway through their mode checks as the observatory continues clicking through milestones smoothly in deep space after its launch on Dec. 25, 2021.
Full schedule:
Monday, July 11
5 p.m. EDT / 2100 GMT: President Biden will unveil the first science-quality image from the James Webb Space Telescope at the White House. Live coverage will air here at Space.com, as well as on NASA TV and the agency’s website (opens in new tab).
Tuesday, July 12
9:45 a.m. EDT / 1345 GMT: Live coverage of opening remarks from NASA leadership and Webb mission personnel will air here at Space.com, as well as on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website (opens in new tab).
10:30 a.m. EDT / 1430 GMT: Live coverage of the image release will air here at Space.com, as well as on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website (opens in new tab). The public also can watch live on Facebook (opens in new tab), Twitter (opens in new tab), YouTube (opens in new tab), Twitch (opens in new tab), and Daily Motion (opens in new tab).
12 p.m. EDT / 1600 GMT: NASA will hold a joint media briefing with its partners at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center near Baltimore. The briefing will stream live here at Space.com, as well as on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website (opens in new tab). Participants include:
- Eric Smith, Webb program scientist and Astrophysics Division chief scientist, NASA Headquarters
- Knicole Colón, Webb deputy project scientist for exoplanet science, NASA Goddard
- René Doyon, principal investigator for the Canadian Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph, University of Montreal
- Christopher Evans, Webb project scientist, ESA
- Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist, STScI
- Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist, NASA Goddard
- Amber Straughn, Webb deputy project scientist for communications, NASA Goddard
Wednesday, July 13
At 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), a NASA Science Live show will air. Called Webb’s First Full-Color Images Explained, it will air live on the NASA Science Live website (opens in new tab), as well as YouTube (opens in new tab), Facebook (opens in new tab), and Twitter (opens in new tab). Viewers can submit questions on social media using the hashtag #UnfoldtheUniverse or by leaving a comment in the chat section of the Facebook or YouTube stream.
A simultaneous live social media event will take place in Spanish on NASA en español YouTube (opens in new tab), Facebook (opens in new tab), and Twitter (opens in new tab) accounts.
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