NASA is working on a telescope that could redefine our understanding of our place in the universe but it's not without an astronomical price tag.
The James Webb Telescope will be able to look further back in time than its predecessor, the Hubble telescope.
"The James Webb Telescope is to help us find our entire history, from the first things after the big bang to how the first galaxies are born," said John Mather, the telescope's senior project scientist.
Scientists are also hoping it may give them the first clues about the existence of life in another solar system.
When Webb is finally launched in 2018, years behind schedule, it will cost about $8.8 billion, $6.5 billion more than the original estimate.
"When you're doing inventions and things for the first time, you don't know exactly what you're going to run in to and we found several things we had to work around," said Rick Howard, Webb program director.
The Webb telescope will orbit around one million miles from Earth.
