The launch of the James Webb space telescope by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, repeatedly postponed, was confirmed for December 25 by the European Space Agency, Arianespace and Nasa on Wednesday.
The launcher with its payload, currently sheltered in the final assembly building, will be transferred to the launch pad on Thursday morning, said Stéphane Israël, director of Arianespace, in a tweet.
Read alsoWhy the Webb space telescope promises to revolutionize astronomy
The launch of the James Webb space telescope, the most powerful ever designed, has already been postponed three times since its arrival in Kourou at the Guyanese Space Center last October.
The first was linked to an incident that occurred during the preparations for the telescope at the end of November, and the second to a communication problem with the ground system.
On Tuesday,
"bad weather conditions"
caused a further delay, NASA said in a statement.
Built by NASA with the cooperation of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency, the James Webb should make it possible to explore the first ages of the Universe as well as the evolution of galaxies or even the characteristics of exoplanets.
Its launch is to take place
"as early as possible in the launch window starting at 12:20 GMT,"
ESA said in a tweet.
NASA for its part indicated that this firing window was 32 minutes.
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