--- title: "NASA Officials Are Worried That Pirates Will Steal the James Webb Telescope" description: "At a recent meeting about NASA's James Webb space telescope, engineers voiced their concern over pirates, as The Atlantic reports." date: "2021-03-12" modified: "2021-03-12" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-pirates-steal-james-webb-telescope" categories: - "James Webb Space Telescope" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "James webb" - "james webb space telescope" - "NASA" - "pirates" - "the digest" --- # NASA Officials Are Worried That Pirates Will Steal the James Webb Telescope ![At a recent meeting about NASA's James Webb space telescope, engineers voiced their concern over pirates, as The Atlantic reports.]() *\Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\* ## Telescope Pirates At a recent meeting about NASA's James Webb space telescope, engineers voiced their concerns about pirates, [*The Atlantic* reports](). No, we're unfortunately not talking about space pirates. They're worried about plain-old sea-based pirates instead. The massive space telescope, featuring a 21 foot mirror, and a tennis court-sized protective cage, is far too large to stick inside a plane. Instead, NASA will have to ship the massive mirror right through the Panama Canal for its eventual launch in French Guiana — and NASA is worried that the journey could attract robbers. ## Secret Mission The shipping time and location will be hush-hush to ward off any extremely ambitious thieves. All we know is that it will sail off in late summer. "Why would you announce that you’re going to be shipping on a certain day something that is worth over $10 billion," meeting attendee Christopher Conselice, an astrophysicist at the University of Manchester, told *The Atlantic*, "that you could easily put in a boat?" It's an especially harrowing sea passage for a project that has been going on for over two decades. NASA has [poured almost $10 billion]() into the project over that time period. ## Space Treasure It would be quite the booty for any pirate willing to risk their lives. The telescope's honeycomb-shaped mirrors are lined with gold. Surprisingly, it wouldn't be the first heist of its kind. In 1984, a steel structure for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope was kidnapped by its cargo vessel's commercial captain, as *The Atlantic* points out. The captain later asked for a ransom, but was instead arrested at gunpoint at customs. **READ MORE:** [Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope?]() \[*The Atlantic*\] **More on the James Webb:** *[James Webb Hated Gay People. Why Are We Naming a Telescope After Him?]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()