French President Emmanuel Macron said that the launch of the orbiting James Webb telescope into space will forever remain one of the key events in the history of space exploration, TASS reports.

On Saturday, the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, launched from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana, put the telescope into orbit. After that, James Webb for four weeks will move to the destination in the second point of Lagrange, the European Space Agency (ESA) informed earlier. This point is four times farther from the Earth than the Moon, at a distance of 1.5 million km on the side opposite to the Sun.

James Webb is a joint project of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

According to the American Internet portal SpaceNews, NASA invested $ 8.8 billion in the project, ESA - 815 million, including the cost of the rocket and launch, CSA - 165 million.

The telescope, named after James Webb, the head of the Apollo program that brought man to the moon, is set to replace the Hubble Observatory in orbit.