Posted on 08/03/2017 8:04:36 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Set to be launched in 2018 from Kourou, French Guiana, the JWST will embark on a journey to unravel the universe’s mysteries, "from discovering the first stars and galaxies" to "studying the atmospheres of alien planets around other stars."
“This was the first time all the different parts worked together at the same time, and this was the first time it was tested against the actual spacecraft flight hardware,” explained Alan Johns, ground segment and operations manager for the Webb telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA called, and the Webb telescope responded. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently completed its Ground Segment Test Number 1 (GSEG-1), for the first time confirming successful end-to-end communication between the telescope and its mission operations center.
The Deep Space Network comprises three ground stations located about 120 degrees apart on Earth — one each in Canberra, Australia; Madrid, Spain; and Goldstone, California. This photo shows an antenna at the DSN site in California.
GSEG-1, which completed on June 20, tested all of the communications systems required to support the telescope’s launch, commissioning and normal operations once it is in orbit. The test showed successful end-to-end communication between the Webb telescope’s spacecraft bus, currently located at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, and the telescope’s mission operations center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Before this test, the flight operations team had only verified communication with the telescope piecemeal — in several smaller tests that were not end-to-end.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailygalaxy.com ...
Hope the launch goes well.
Webb. Hubble? Hmmm...
I know. Was just thinking that.
That’s a big mirror. Lets hope they don’t have to do repair mission to fix a manufacture error like they did the Hubble.
Nope.
Totally different. Webb and Hubble are different scientists.
No repair missions are possible, this will be four times as far away as the moon. Amazing device. (I work at the company that is building it.)check out these videos on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=james+webb+telescope
BFL
Fingers crossed.
Haven’t been this excited for a space launch since Hubble in the early 90s.
No margin for error on this one though.
hmm I was thinking along the terms of James Webb USMC and wondering when he got into the ‘telescope’ business.
After all he had been a R, D, I so not telling what he is ‘up to’ now. <: <: <:.
Are we launching it or is it the French?
JWST’s Primary Mirror Compared to Hubble
2.5 times larger in diameter, or about six times larger in area
1,000 times more sensitive in the infrared spectrum
The overall weight of the telescope will be significantly lighter due to ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight mirror segments that were unavailable when Hubble was built
The launch vehicle is Ariane V.
Screwed if that's the case. Webb will be out of reach.
No margin for error on this one though.
...
A failure would mean a lot of money and work down the drain. There is no backup.
There’s nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.
“That’s a big mirror.”
It’s multiple smaller mirrors. It amazes me that they can be aligned to millionths of an inch so they act like a single mirror.
Yes. The telescope has a tennis court-size sun shield to keep the telescope very cold which is necessary to make sensitive IR band measurements.
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