European officials: NASA’s James Webb telescope launch could slip from end October but will occur before year’s end

PARIS — The launch of NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) aboard Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket may miss its scheduled late-October "launch readiness" date but at this point the slip is likely to no more than a few weeks, European government and industry officials said.

The current plan, they said, is still to launch two Ariane 5 vehicles before JWST. Both of these launches will be with a Ruag Space fairing that has been modified to prevent excess vibration discovered in two Ariane 5 missions . . .

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