NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope:Visiting a Time When Galaxies Were Young

With the discovery of galaxies that existed when the universe was very young (approximately 5 percent of its current age), of planets not in our own solar system, and with the tantalizing evidence that the conditions for life may have existed within our solar system on planets or moons outside of the earth system, the past year has seen an explosion of interest in astronomy. In particular, a new era of exploration and understanding seems imminent, where the connection between the existence for the conditions of life will be connected to the origin of galaxies, stars and planets within the Universe. Who knows where this quest for knowledge will take us? Keywords: Active Optics, Next Generation Space Telescope, Deployables, Detectors, NGST.