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LiveScience
LiveScience
Richard Panek

'Eight billion bucks or bust': From pirates to 'stupid mistakes' — the wild story of how James Webb Space Telescope almost failed to launch

James Webb NASA James Webb Space Telescope Institute
A photo of the JWST rocket launch.

In this excerpt from "Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmos" (Little, Brown Book Group, 2024), author Richard Panek looks at the jaw-dropping story behind the launch of the JWST — and how it almost fell at the final hurdle.

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