James Webb for Planetary Defense

The James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam was used to obtain new observations that removed a 4% chance of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting the Moon, showing that flagship space telescopes can play a direct role in refining near‑Earth object risk assessments when ground‑based follow‑up is limited. This suggests mission time on flagship observatories can have immediate civil‑protection value beyond their traditional astrophysics mandates. — If space telescopes are accepted as planetary‑defense assets, that affects funding, mission scheduling, and international coordination for near‑Earth object monitoring.