The PBS Science program NOVA did a special on the Webb Telescope last night. Most of it was stuff that’s already been released and that we all are familiar with, such as the project’s antecedents, history, its development, construction and future capabilities. They also showed the ‘first light’ images that were released yesterday.

The show was a pretty good intro to the telescope, the people who built it, and the people who will use it. But most important, it goes into just what an ambitious project this was. NASA and its collaborators went for broke, they truly aimed at the stars. They took enormous risks, and, hopefully, it appears they have payed off. I know if I had been in charge of this program I would have opted for something a lot more conservative, a lot less audacious. The Webb’s creators are to be congratulated not just for their vision and their wisdom, but for their courage. The entire project was a career-wrecker, there were a million places where it could have gone south–the “single points of failure”. Its not only the technology, but the organization, the management, the collaboration with our many international technical allies and friends, the whole shooting match. It was our generation’s Stonehenge, our Pyramids, our Panama Canal, our Parthenon. It may very well turn out to be our finest hour.

I salute these guys, they swung for the fences when I bet their every instinct was to hope for the walk, bunt, or at most, go for the base hit. I am so proud of them, and of my country. At a time when it looks like the American Century is starting to unravel, when everything about this nation seems to be in danger of coming apart, Webb is all the proof we need America can still KICK ASS!