NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope emerged from Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in December. ( Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)

This article originally appeared in the Jan. 15, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...