James Webb Space Telescope

After $10 billion and 25 years of development delays, JWST launched on Christmas 2021 and unfolded flawlessly at the L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million km from Earth. Its infrared instruments immediately delivered the deepest images of the universe ever taken, peered into the atmospheres of exoplanets, and detected galaxies from just 300 million years after the Big Bang — far earlier than models predicted. Webb didn't just succeed Hubble; it made Hubble look like a disposable camera.