Tomorrow Finally Comes For James Webb
Back in the late Clinton years, when I was a graduate student, we started hearing talks about the Next Generation Space Telescope, the planned successor to Hubble. The plan was ambitious — a 6.5 meter diameter unfolding mirror working in the infrared, kept cold by a massive sunshield. The initial estimate was that it would cost $500 million and launch by 2007. To say we were skeptical of that cost estimate and launch date would the understatement of the century.
Over the years, the telescope, renamed the James Webb Space Telescope, would see problem after problem, delay after delay, cost overrun after cost overrun. To be fair to the program, however, this wasn’t really the telescope’s fault. The initial cost and time estimates were wildly optimistic. JWST was doing things that had never been done before with a spacecraft.
Well, this morning, JWST finally got its moment to shine. The spacecraft had a successful launch and deployment. It is now drawing its own power from the solar panels.
We have LIFTOFF of the @NASAWebb Space Telescope!
At 7:20am ET (12:20 UTC), the beginning of a new, exciting decade of science climbed to the sky. Webb’s mission to #UnfoldTheUniverse will change our understanding of space as we know it. pic.twitter.com/Al8Wi5c0K6
— NASA (@NASA) December 25, 2021
Here it is: humanity’s final look at @NASAWebb as it heads into deep space to answer our biggest questions. Alone in the vastness of space, Webb will soon begin an approximately two-week process to deploy its antennas, mirrors, and sunshield. #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/DErMXJhNQd
— NASA (@NASA) December 25, 2021
✅ Milestone achieved. @NASAWebb is safely in space, powered on, and communicating with ground controllers.
The space telescope is now on its way to #UnfoldTheUniverse at its final destination one million miles (1.5 million km) away from Earth. pic.twitter.com/gqICd0Xojz
— NASA (@NASA) December 25, 2021
The next month will be extremely tense as the systems come online, the telescope unfolds and, most critically, the sunshield slowly deploys. The telescope will then cool down, get checked out and bring its instruments online. All things considered, it will probably be six months before we see the first light images.
But, assuming everything works correctly, it will then get on with its mission: peering into the deepest reaches of the universe to watch the first galaxies assemble; watching the birth of new stars and planets in our own galaxy; and looking for the potential building blocks of life in extrasolar planets.
So don’t uncross your fingers just yet. But you can maybe relax a little bit. The first step has finally been taken.
As someone commented elsewhere, it seems like it’s been forever since we watched a launch that didn’t include “Falcon” in it. SpaceX did 31 Falcon launches this year. They have 36 Falcon-9 and Falcon Heavy launches booked for 2022, plus whatever launches for Starlink they slip in. A few non-Falcon flights of note scheduled for 2022: the first SLS launch with an unmanned moon orbit and return; the next attempt to fly Boeing’s capsule; the first Vulcan flight; and the first New Glenn flight from Bezos.Report
I still don’t understand why the Whitewater guy keeps getting telescopes named after him.Report
Heading to L2, FSM help us if it needs fixing like Hubble has.Report
The planners and designers were told to assume no repair missions. My reading says it would be a 50-day round trip, plus time doing the repairs. Assuming you could get close enough to the right parts without damaging things worse — unlike Hubble, the mirror is just hanging out there in the open.
So, an expanded Orion or Starship. Orion is SLS-only, all of which are booked for the next many years. Depending on the replacement parts, don’t know if Orion has the necessary volume anyway. I assume Elon has already thought about it. My offer, in his place, would be “Build a cheaper new one, we’ll drop it off and wait while it unfolds, then gather up the old one and lug it home. Cost-plus. And yes, you’ll be paying for a bunch of development we need for a Mars mission.”
NASA is doing some risky things over the next several months.
I don’t remember if Mike has done a piece comparing the Extremely Large Telescope to the Webb, and whether the Webb is worth ten times the price tag.Report
No real choice for what they wanted to do. NASA is looking into robotics missions for refueling and possible repair, but they won’t deploy those until the very last moment (you don’t want to risk breaking it and taking time off it’s life to refuel it, so you’d only refuel it when otherwise you’d lose it). Same for any repairs they can do without.
But they sort of needed it out in the cold, well away from everything.
Seeing into the deep infrared means you’ve got to be very, very, VERY cold yourself if you don’t want to taint the images.Report
On the plus side, the solar observatory is out at L1 and humming right along.Report