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A model of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which will launch on October 31, 2021.
The next stop on our journey to knowing the cosmos will take place in Kourou, French Guiana exactly one year today.
On October 31, 2021 – a Sunday – NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will launch the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or “Webb”).
There are rocket launches every week. Why should someone be excited about another?
This one is going to be different – that is expensive and his expansive.
Rated 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will set off from the European Spaceport’s ELA-3 launch complex on top of an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket.
It will be stuffed with an origami-shaped structure that will unfold once in space, but it will also be full of the hopes and dreams of space fans, astronomers, amateur astronomers and scientists.
What is Webb?
It’s an $ 8.8 billion space telescope – NASA’s next major space science observatory – and the successor, in many ways, of Hubble. It’s about the size of a tennis court. It is the largest, most powerful and most complex space science telescope ever built in the world. It is named after James E. Webb, administrator of NASA during part of the Apollo era.
What will Webb do?
Once in position, its waist-sized five-layer sunshade will unfold to reveal a 6.5-meter main mirror that will be able to detect faint light from stars and galaxies. During his 10-year assignment, Webb:
- study the solar system.
- take pictures of exoplanets.
- reveal galaxies never before seen by mankind – the first galaxies.
- explore the mysteries of the origins of the Universe.
Where is Webb going?
After leaving the European spaceport northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, South America, Webb will travel 1 million miles / 1.5 million kilometers over the next 30 days to the second point of Lagrange, also called L2.
At this very special place in space, the Webb will be able to stay in line with Earth while moving around the Sun.
Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which rotates around Earth so it can only observe when it is on the night side of the planet, Webb will have a sunshade to deflect light and heat from the Sun and be able to observe constantly.
Being at L2 also gives Earth a direct line of sight to Webb at all times so NASA can send instructions and receive data at any time through its Deep Space Network antennas.
Has Webb been delayed?
Yes. The most recent cancellation came in the summer, when the impact of COVID-19 on work hours began to be felt in its Northrop Grumman test room in Redondo Beach, California. This postponed the planned launch date from March 31, 2021 to October 31, 2021.
However, Webb is now fully built, assembled, and integrated, and it just passed rigorous pre-launch testing. All systems work!
Can Webb be fixed?
No never. This is what makes it such a risky mission. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 with a faulty primary mirror and had to be visited in 1993 by NASA astronauts in a space shuttle (who actually traveled a total of five times to install upgrades) . This will not happen with Webb. Once started, it’s all by itself.
There are other challenges. Webb is tricky. Launches mean vibrations and while everything is simulated and tested, Webb has 18 primary mirror segments that should unfold and form a single perfect plane. The five layers of its sun visor must also remain intact.
Many could is bad – but nothing can be wrong with Webb. Its launch and its journey into space to be calibrated are going to be biting.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been assembled into its final form. It will be launched in October … [+]
What’s next for Webb?
At the start of 2021, Webb will be folded “origami-style” to be shipped to the launch site and installed inside the fairing of the Ariane 5 launcher.
I wish you clear skies and wide eyes.
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