Which city is home to the institute that operates JWST?

Baltimore is home to the institute that operates the James Webb Space Telescope.

The Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI, conducts Webb’s science and mission operations from Baltimore, Maryland. The institute is located on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University and operates the observatory for NASA on behalf of the astronomical community. It also handles scientific activities for the Hubble Space Telescope and is involved with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

STScI is not the same organization as NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard managed major parts of Webb’s development, while STScI is the science-operations center that schedules observations, supports researchers and processes mission data. That division explains why Greenbelt can look tempting as an answer.

The institute also manages the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, commonly called MAST. The archive distributes Webb data along with observations from Hubble and other missions. Baltimore therefore serves as a major hub for turning Webb’s observations into public astronomical research.