[ad_1]
Young said Wednesday that at one point, the wrong solvent was used to clean the propulsion valves of the observatory. The substance was found to be incompatible with the valves, which workers would have known had they called the solvent vendor to check, said Young. "It's an error that really should not have happened," he said.
A wiring error led workers to apply too much strain on the spacecraft pressure transducers, causing serious damage. And during an acoustic test, which examines whether the material can survive the loud sounds of the launch, the fasteners designed to maintain the sunscreen have become detached. The incident scattered 70 bolts, and engineers rushed to find them. They are still looking for some. "We are really close to finding every single piece," said Zerbuchen.
These three mistakes alone resulted in a delay of about 1.5 years and $ 600 million, Young said.
NOTLIKE A Officials said engineers will spend the summer recovering from these mistakes, especially with the sun visor. They hope to take over the tests of the different systems in October. When the space observatory is fully badembled, it will undergo even more tests to make sure that every part of the equipment is worthy of flight. When it is ready, Webb will be shipped by boat to a launch center operated in Europe in Guyana.
NOTLIKE A Officials have not blamed Northrup Grumman, but the agency has increased its monitoring at the Los Angeles facility in recent months. NOTLIKE A redeployed engineers who had already completed their role in the mission, and even attracted engineers from Goddard's ranks who were not involved. "We are part of this team that created this problem," said Zerbuchen. "Of course, Northrup Grumman is one of them, but we are watching all that, so we are taking our responsibilities too."
Stephen Jurczyk, NASAThe badociate director of the agency, said the agency gives Northrup Grumman "performance plans" every six months, evaluates them according to these expectations and pays them based on the results . "Their prices have reflected their performance over the previous period, and they will reflect the upcoming performance," Jurczyk said. "That's how we hold them responsible and reward them for their good performance, not their poor performance."
The current situation is very high NASAThe list of nightmare scenarios for this telescope, just under an explosion on launch day. When Webb was first proposed in 1996, officials estimated that the mission would cost between $ 1 billion and $ 3.5 billion. More than a decade later, the expected costs had ballooned. In 2010, Nature called Webb "the telescope that ate astronomy." As Webb consumed more and more funds, others NASA blocked projects. (When this article ran, NASALaunch date was 2014.)
Bridenstine, Young, and Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman's CEO, will face lawmakers at a hearing of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee next month, and they should expect a close examination. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the Republican Committee, is known to be a fan of astronomy, but it seems his patience with Webb is shrinking. "Program delays and cost overruns not only delay the critical work of the JWST, but they also hurt others. NASA missions, which can be delayed, excluded or entirely abandoned, "Smith said in a statement on Wednesday.
Source link
