By Steve Gorman

(Reuters] – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has arrived in its orbit about the sun at its gravitational landing spot on Monday. This is almost one million miles away from Earth.

Webb arrived at Lagrange Point Two or L2 orbital stability, one month after its launch. This was achieved by a last course-correcting maneuver using on-board rocket thrusters.

Mission control engineers from the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore activated the thrusters. The ground team used radio signals for confirmation that Webb had been successfully “inserted” in an orbital loop about L2.

Webb’s vantage point from space will allow it to follow an unusual “halo” route in constant alignment and contact with Earth. The planet and telescope circle each other in tandem.

Webb’s 30 year-old predecessor, Hubble Space Telescope (30 years old), orbits Earth at 340 miles (547km) and moves in and out from the shadow of the planet every 90 minutes.

Eric Smith (NASA’s program scientist and Webb coordinator) said in an interview that Webb will be held in place by the gravitational pull of Earth and the sun at L2 so no additional rocket thrust is required to stop Webb moving.

Mission operations center also began fine-tuning Hubble’s main telescope mirror, which is an array of 18 segments made of beryllium-coated gold that measure 21 feet (4 inches) in diameter.

Webb can see objects farther back than Hubble, because of its size and infrared design.

This feature is expected to revolutionize astronomy by revealing the first glimpse of newborn galaxies that date back to 100 million years following the Big Bang. It’s the theoretical flashpoint which set in motion the universe’s expansion 13.8 billion year ago.

Webb’s instruments make it possible to look for evidence of life-supporting atmospheres near scores of exoplanets, celestial bodies orbiting faraway stars. It also makes it easy to see worlds closer to us such as Saturn’s moon Titan and Mars.

Next Steps

Webb’s astronomical debut will be a long process that requires many months of preparation.

After being folded into the main mirror’s 18 sections, they were released with all of their structural parts during the two week period that followed Webb’s Dec. 25 launch.

The segments, held in place by fasteners, were removed recently and moved about a half inch forward from their initial configuration. This allowed for them to be adjusted into an unbroken light-collecting surface.

For the mirror to focus properly, 18 of its segments must now be aligned. This process will take 3 months.

Ground teams will activate the telescope’s camera, spectrograph and other instruments as the alignment moves forward. Smith explained that this will be followed two months later by calibrating the instruments.

Webb should have the ability to make observations as soon as possible if everything goes according to plan. The initial images are used to illustrate how the instrument works.

Smith stated that Webb’s most challenging work, which includes plans to train the mirror to detect objects farther from Earth, would take Webb longer to complete.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency lead an international collaboration to create this telescope. Northrop-Grumman Corp (NYSE: ) was the principal contractor.