Astronomers and scientists may just be bestowed with an out-of-this-world gift this year.

While children track Santa’s sleigh as it journeys around the Earth, something else is set to light up the sky as early as Christmas Eve: the long-awaited launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

After nearly two decades of development, and around seven launch delays, the space observatory is now fully fuelled and sitting in the final assembly building in Kourou, French Guiana, ahead of blastoff scheduled for no earlier than December 24.

First conceived 30 years ago, JWST is the largest space observatory ever to be built, and is often described as one of NASA’s biggest and boldest challenges. Involving a large international collaboration with the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency – with both agencies providing key scientific instruments, and the ESA contributing a launch vehicle called Ariane 5 – the JWST promises to revolutionise our understanding of the universe by probing deeper and farther than ever done before.