https://phys.org/news/2018-07-nasa-technically-complex-space-observatory.html

"When we first thought of Webb, it wasn't technically feasible. We had to succeed at inventing some things before we could build it—not unlike the Apollo Program in this regard," said Paul Geithner, Deputy Project Manager—Technical at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Before construction of the telescope could even begin, scientists and engineers set out on the task of creating ten new technological innovations the world had never seen. Known as "enabling technologies," these advancements have been incorporated into Webb and will pave the way for it to become the most capable scientific observatory ever built. At nearly 100 times the power of its scientific predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is expected to reveal a wealth of information about where we came from, how planets and stars form, and will also be used to perform detailed analysis of planets in both our own solar system, and elsewhere out in the cosmos.