Notes for Editors

ESA's participation in the JWST mission was formally approved by the ESA Science Programme Committee in 2003. The four major European contributions to the mission are formalised in the Memorandum of Understanding on JWST signed by NASA and ESA in 2007:

Provision of the NIRSpec instrument;
Provision of the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument through special funding from the ESA member states;
Provision of the Ariane 5 ECA launcher;
Manpower support to JWST operations.

Contact for further information:

Markus Bauer
ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer
Email: markus.bauer@esa.int
Tel: +31 71 565 6799
Mob: +31 61 594 3 954

Torsten Boeker
JWST deputy project scientist
Email: tboeker@rssd.esa.int
Tel: +31 71 565 8272