Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The James Webb Space Telescope is doing something astronomers dreamed about for decades: peering into our universe’s early past, a period known as cosmic dawn. A new NASA+ documentary—also called Cosmic Dawn—chronicles the inside story of Webb’s design, construction, and launch. John Mather, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, proposed the telescope and led its science team for decades. In this interview, Mather talks about his life, his research, and the pre-dawn phone call telling him he had won the Nobel Prize.
Ryan Fitzgibbons (eMITS/AMA): Producer, Editor
Padi Boyd (NASA/GSFC): Host
John Mather (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
Katie Konans (eMITS): Producer
Jacob Pinter (eMITS/AMA): Project Support
Christian Elliott (eMITS/AMA): Project Support
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14940. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14940. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAGoddard
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
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· X: twitter.com/NASAGoddard
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· Flickr: flickr.com/photos/gsfc
The James Webb Space Telescope is doing something astronomers dreamed about for decades: peering into our universe’s early past, a period known as cosmic dawn. A new NASA+ documentary—also called Cosmic Dawn—chronicles the inside story of Webb’s design, construction, and launch. John Mather, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, proposed the telescope and led its science team for decades. In this interview, Mather talks about his life, his research, and the pre-dawn phone call telling him he had won the Nobel Prize.
Ryan Fitzgibbons (eMITS/AMA): Producer, Editor
Padi Boyd (NASA/GSFC): Host
John Mather (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
Katie Konans (eMITS): Producer
Jacob Pinter (eMITS/AMA): Project Support
Christian Elliott (eMITS/AMA): Project Support
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14940. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14940. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAGoddard
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram: instagram.com/nasagoddard
· X: twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NA
· Flickr: flickr.com/photos/gsfc
