The James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) will extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) and the Spitzer Space Telescope ( SST ) by deploying a large cooled infrared telescope around the Sun - Earth Lagrange point L2 . With a 6 m aperture and three instruments covering the wavelength range from 0.6 to 28 microns , it will provide sensitivities orders of magnitude better than any other facilities . It is intended to observe the light from the first galaxies and the first supernovae , the assembly of galaxies , and the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems . In this talk I will review the scientific objectives and the ability of the system to meet them . I will close with a summary of possible future IR space missions , ranging from the far IR to planet - finding coronagraphs and interferometers