Space - The Final Frontier

[audreyh1]

The coolest thing was seeing the Webb telescope moving away from the final stage with a bit of the Earth in the scene. And we even got to see the the solar panel deploy.

 

[Time2]

The coolest thing was seeing the Webb telescope moving away from the final stage with a bit of the Earth in the scene. And we even got to see the the solar panel deploy.

I liked how after final separation, you could see the curvature of the earth and the Gulf Aden, between Ethiopia and Yemen. See at 1:50:44

 

[audreyh1]

You can track deployment of JWST here. It’s got a ways to go! :
https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

 

[tulak]

The coolest thing was seeing the Webb telescope moving away from the final stage with a bit of the Earth in the scene. And we even got to see the the solar panel deploy.

I watched a replay this morning. Glad to see everything went smoothly. I loved watching the solar panel deploy and start shining.

As a side-note, I didn’t realize that Hubble is still operating. It was last serviced in 2009 and they estimate it can operate until 2030-40. It’s been in service for over 30 years. Amazing. Let’s hope the Webb telescope has the same run.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, the Hubble telescope is still operating and sending back great images!

It shut down for a while this year, but they were able to bring it back up!

 

[JoeWras]

I literally bumped into Storey Musgrave in a hotel lobby in the late 90s. I regret not chatting with him or at least thanking him.

Storey was almost 60 when he lead the extremely physically demanding EVA for the first Hubble repair. Really incredible. He has spent something like 27 hours in space outside of a vehicle. He's also flown on every shuttle.

If someone asked me who is the astronaut that inspires you, I would name him. His persistence during the first Hubble EVA saved the program. It was no small feat.

 

[Chuckanut]

The Webb space telescope is now fully deployed. There are still a lot of things that NASA has to do to get it working properly, but all of these delicate, single point of failure events have worked well. It's still traveling to the L2 LaGrange point where it will setup its observation post.

This is truly amazing stuff. We are witnessing what was science fiction in our childhood.

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...yment-of-the-webb-space-telescope/?comments=1

After a quarter century of effort by tens of thousands of people, more than $10 billion in taxpayer funding, and some 350 deployment mechanisms that had to go just so, the James Webb Space Telescope fully unfurled its wings. The massive spacecraft completed its final deployments and, by God, the process went smoothly.

As part of the deployment process, there were 344 actions where a single-point failure could scuttle the telescope. This is a remarkable number of instances without a redundant capability, which is why many of the scientists and engineers I have spoken with in recent years felt that Webb had a pretty good chance of failing once in space.But now that ultra complex heat shield is working. The temperature on the Sun-facing side of the telescope is 55 degrees Celsius, or a very, very, very hot day in the Sahara desert. And already, the science instruments on the back side of the sunshield have cooled to -199 degrees Celsius, a temperature at which nitrogen is a liquid. They will yet cool further.

 

[mystang52]

The Webb space telescope is now fully deployed. There are still a lot of things that NASA has to do to get it working properly, but all of these delicate, single point of failure events have worked well. It's still traveling to the L2 LaGrange point where it will setup its observation post.

This is truly amazing stuff. We are witnessing what was science fiction in our childhood.

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...yment-of-the-webb-space-telescope/?comments=1

Amazing indeed. I am constantly in awe of the genius necessary for all aspects, including the seemingly "unimportant" minor details. Just curious though: is there a signpost out there showing where the L2 LaGrange point is?

 

[Gumby]

Amazing indeed. I am constantly in awe of the genius necessary for all aspects, including the seemingly "unimportant" minor details. Just curious though: is there a signpost out there showing where the L2 LaGrange point is?

Why, yes, there is.

 

[aja8888]

Why, yes, there is.

Hey, that's in Texas!

 

[REWahoo]

So the Webb telescope is going to spend many long, lonely years hanging out just down the road from the Chicken Ranch?

 

[arbeadub]

When they cross it I hope they play a little ZZtop, I say "How, How, How".

 

[aja8888]

When they cross it I hope they play a little ZZtop, I say "How, How, How".

The telescope probably has all of ZZ Top's albums recorded in it.

 

[arbeadub]

The telescope probably has all of ZZ Top's albums recorded in it.

I guess I'll have to tune it in, maybe Starlink can do a relay, the future is just a day away.

 

[CaptTom]

I came to this thread to learn a little more about space exploration, and instead learned about the Chicken Ranch and a ZZ Top song.


Well worth it.

 

[braumeister]

James Webb telescope arrived at its final location today, so everything has been going really well so far. Pretty exciting!

 

[Retch The Grate]

James Webb telescope arrived at its final location today, so everything has been going really well so far. Pretty exciting!

Super exciting! Looking forward to when we get data and research papers on the data.

 

[mystang52]

James Webb telescope arrived at its final location today, so everything has been going really well so far. Pretty exciting!

I've mentioned before my amazement of the sheer brilliance of all of the involved scientists. They thought of everything in their planning. From Space.com, describing the final maneuver to get to L2:
"The Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb to space didn't send it all the way to L2, because the mission team wanted to make sure the observatory didn't overshoot its final destination. That situation would require turning Webb around to thrust back toward Earth, which would expose its instruments to the sun, overheating them, according to NASA. Webb and its instruments need to stay extremely cold in order to work as designed and pick up on the ultra-faint heat signatures from the early universe.

So, they launched Webb with not quite enough thrust to get all the way to its final stop, allowing it to complete the final leg of the journey with its own small thrusters and the small amount of propellant that's onboard."

 

[stephenson]

Using big launcher, then upper stage, then spacecraft thrusters for final is pretty common.

This has been the most complex, best covered and communicated, and most carefully engineered project of this type ... maybe ever.

Congratulations to the winning TRW team which became the Northrop Grumman team, where most of the design and build occurred - sure, way over budget, but everyone stayed the course - even NASA and our Congress - because it was necessary to do so.

 

[JoeWras]

It is amazing and an incredible engineering feat. This is The Dream for astronomers!

I was big-time into astronomy in the mid 70s. I almost made it a career -- until I caught the computer bug and a HS councilor suggested I could make 2x the money with 6 years less higher education.

Anyway, in the late 70s, the Hubble was well on its way. ("Launch by 1983" ha!) Even then, Hubble was seen as a step to something greater at the Lagrange points. Hubble was to JW as Gemini was to Apollo.

I had on astronomy class instructor talk at length about this dream of putting telescopes at one of the points. I looked him up and I see he is part time retired after a career in research. So Alan, this is for you. Your dream finally came true!

 

[CaptTom]

SpaceX launch scrubbed again.

This time, a "cruise liner" (whatever that means) was in the exclusion zone.

It boggles my mind that this can happen. I've done exclusion zone support, for everything from boat parades to LPG tankers to aircraft carriers. Someone wasn't doing their job, both on the offending ship and enforcing the zone.

My next thought is: Can SpaceX sue the ship owner? It must cost a fortune to fuel up the rocket and abort with seconds left to go. I hope the moron who navigated into the zone gets fired. There's no excuse for getting underway without knowing this stuff.

 

[Christine]

SpaceX launch scrubbed again.

This time, a "cruise liner" (whatever that means) was in the exclusion zone.

I would think they could be fined or worse for putting passengers and crew in harms way. I know people get fined for visiting the exclusion zone around Chernobyl.

 

[JoeWras]

SpaceX launch scrubbed again.

This time, a "cruise liner" (whatever that means) was in the exclusion zone.

It boggles my mind that this can happen. I've done exclusion zone support, for everything from boat parades to LPG tankers to aircraft carriers. Someone wasn't doing their job, both on the offending ship and enforcing the zone.

My next thought is: Can SpaceX sue the ship owner? It must cost a fortune to fuel up the rocket and abort with seconds left to go. I hope the moron who navigated into the zone gets fired. There's no excuse for getting underway without knowing this stuff.

"cruise liners" have been in the news these days. Let's just say the industry as a whole is not behaving very well as of late. If they can run away to sea to avoid paying their fuel bill, what concern would an exclusion zone have for them? International law and all.

 

[CaptTom]

Speculation is that it was Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, which AIS tracking shows was heading out into the zone at the time. RCCL should be able to foot the bill. One article said it would cost SpaceX hundreds of thousands of dollars, which may also be speculation. I don't have the CG contacts I used to have, I would love to hear the full story. There's absolutely no way that ship should have left port.

 

[clifp]

SpaceX launch scrubbed again.

This time, a "cruise liner" (whatever that means) was in the exclusion zone.

It boggles my mind that this can happen. I've done exclusion zone support, for everything from boat parades to LPG tankers to aircraft carriers. Someone wasn't doing their job, both on the offending ship and enforcing the zone.

My next thought is: Can SpaceX sue the ship owner? It must cost a fortune to fuel up the rocket and abort with seconds left to go. I hope the moron who navigated into the zone gets fired. There's no excuse for getting underway without knowing this stuff.

Since you have experience. Who decides what organization gets priority? It is also an inconvenience to Royal Caribbean and their passengers to wait in port. It is not uncommon for SpaceX launches to postpone for 12 and often 24 hours or so. Is 12 hours really enough time for cruise line to get all of their passengers on board and clear the exclusion zone.