NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope on Monday fired its thrusters for five minutes and reach its final destination, a special orbit around the sun where it will spend the rest of its life scrutinizing the universe and capturing light emitted soon after the big bang.

The high-risk, long-delayed mission, burdened with ambitious astronomy goals and a $10 billion price tag, has gone spectacularly well, overcoming an eye-popping list of potential snags that had haunted the dreams of engineers for years. More challenges lie ahead, but the engineers and scientists are breathing more easily.