By Scott Dance

2:37 p.m. EDT, July 24, 2012

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is holding a family event Wednesday night to teach middle-school-age children about the James Webb Space Telescope.

Visitors will learn about the telescope from experts who work on it, and then will be able to build a simple telescope they can take home.

The event is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Goddard visitors center in Greenbelt. The Webb telescope is slated to launch around 2018.