NASA Displays Space Telescope ModelNASA Displays Space Telescope Model

NASA this week is giving the world a first look at its next-generation space telescope at the 2010 World Science Festival in New York City.

The space agency has erected a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope in Battery Park in Manhattan as part of the festival, an event hosted by the Science Festival Foundation and aimed at cultivating in the general public an interest and knowledge of science and its latest achievements. The model will be on display until Sunday.

NASA has posted a time-lapsed video on YouTube showing how the model was constructed. The model shows a telescope that is 80 feet long, 37 feet wide and nearly 40 feet high.

The James Webb telescope is a collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. It recently met all of its science and engineering requirements for its mission, giving it a green light for manufacturing.

The $5 billion telescope is the successor to Hubble and is scheduled to be launched into space 1 million miles from earth in 2014.

Once in space, the mission of the telescope – which is being managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Center -- is to detect the evolution of the universe by finding the first galaxies to form and connecting the Big Bang theory to the Milky Way galaxy, the star system in which Earth is located.

NASA has been designing the telescope for seven years with Northrop Grumman, the firm leading the design and development. Its design should be fully approved for manufacturing next year and completed for its final review and testing in 2012.

The World Science Festival runs throughout the week. In addition to the James Webb Space Telescope display, the event features sessions on artificial intelligence, new inventions that are solving a variety of ecological and technological challenges, and an update on the search for other intelligent life in the universe.