JWST Countdown To Terror 😳

[AstroKeith]

I was listening to one of the JWST engineers the other day. His description of the latches was rather different to a 'bathroom door latch'. Still simple but included a cam type action that pulled surfaces together when locked. Definitely overkill on a bathroom door!

[Laurieast]

Final latch locked. 

Starboard Wing Fully Deployed.

[Phil Fargaze]

Celebrations at control centre. Latching complete!

[Sunshine]

Just wonderful!

[Laurieast]

No earlier than 1:30 p.m.EST - UTC -5  - NASA will hold a media briefing as soon as possible after the end of the live broadcast coverage of Webb’s final deployments.

[Floater]

Ya dancer!

[Laurieast]

Media briefing is on 

[Stu]

Amazing stuff, really chuffed it has all gone so smoothly for them. Must be some extremely relieved, happy and not a little proud guys and gals right now! Well done all 👍

[Mr Spock]

Looking good 👍

[IB20]

Stunning achievement! I cannot wait for the first round of science to be begin.

[saac]

5 hours ago, Floater said:

Ya dancer!

That made me laugh Floater , I would just love for the JWST chief engineer  to open with "ya dancer" at the media brief .    Ya dancer indeed, what wonders await us? 

Jim 

[Gfamily]

What's particularly good is that the launch on the ESA Ariane 5 was so precise that they estimate they'll have enough propellant left for maybe 20 years of science - twice the original estimate. 

I think I read that there are still >70 single points of failure to go between now and full deployment in orbit around L2 though - so fingers crossed still.  

[Sunshine]

How about if NASA uses Hubble to take an image of webb, at least the back of its sun shield, if anything.

[dannybgoode]

5 hours ago, Sunshine said:

How about if NASA uses Hubble to take an image of webb, at least the back of its sun shield, if anything.

Would Hubble show anything useful though? JWST would still just be a small dot as Hubble does not have the FL or resolution I don't think to produce a detailed image of a small satellite some 1.4m km away from it. 

[Zermelo]

9 hours ago, Gfamily said:

there are still >70 single points of failure to go between now and full deployment

The engineer on the feed reminded the audience that there will be some single points of failure throughout JWST's active life.

[Ags]

5 hours ago, dannybgoode said:

Would Hubble show anything useful though? JWST would still just be a small dot as Hubble does not have the FL or resolution I don't think to produce a detailed image of a small satellite some 1.4m km away from it. 

JWST is four times further away than the Apollo landing sites, and hubble can't image those (in any detail).

[dannybgoode]

Yes thought that was the case.  It is one of the typical 'moon landing didn't happen' conspiracy theory things - 'why don't they prove it with Hubble' without any understand of the technical aspect

[Zermelo]

31 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

'why don't they prove it with Hubble'

and even if it could image the surface well enough, anyone who already disbelieves the lunar landings would have no trouble dismissing the (obviously faked) photos from that (non-existent) space telescope 🙂

[tomato]

10 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

and even if it could image the surface well enough, anyone who already disbelieves the lunar landings would have no trouble dismissing the (obviously faked) photos from that (non-existent) space telescope 🙂

That’s why it would have been great to have had a couple of conspiracy theorists with me when I managed to image the JWST last week. Of course, they probably would have said it was an asteroid that was on the image…

[Floater]

3 hours ago, Zermelo said:

The engineer on the feed reminded the audience that there will be some single points of failure throughout JWST's active life.

Yes, but did he not say that these ‘single points of failure’ would affect only single aspects of the science programme? i.e. some planned operations might be hit but the overall JWST programme would not be hugely reduced.

I hope I’ve interpreted his words correctly. I’m not usually classed as an optimist and would hate to have this unusual (nervous) burst of confidence deflated!

[Zermelo]

44 minutes ago, Floater said:

Yes, but did he not say that these ‘single points of failure’ would affect only single aspects of the science programme? i.e. some planned operations might be hit but the overall JWST programme would not be hugely reduced.

I hope I’ve interpreted his words correctly. I’m not usually classed as an optimist and would hate to have this unusual (nervous) burst of confidence deflated!

We may have seen different things then - the engineer I saw was female. I may have misremembered, but I got the impression she was saying that there would always be the chance (unlikely) of failures in certain components for which there are no redundancy contingencies. And unlike HST, a "rescue" mission isn't a realistic fallback.

[Floater]

2 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

We may have seen different things then - the engineer I saw was female. I may have misremembered, but I got the impression she was saying that there would always be the chance (unlikely) of failures in certain components for which there are no redundancy contingencies. And unlike HST, a "rescue" mission isn't a realistic fallback.

Knew somewhere deep that I was right to beware optimism … 😑

[Macavity]

I see the L2 Lagrange point is not totally empty (two current residents)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_at_Lagrange_points
No doubt anticipated, but be careful double parking? 🙂

[Rusted]

10 minutes ago, Macavity said:

I see the L2 Lagrange point is not totally empty (two current residents)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_at_Lagrange_points
No doubt anticipated, but be careful double parking? 🙂

If JWST developed a serious problem it could officially commandeer the L2's invalid parking spot.
Provided, of course, an ICE people carrier hasn't already double parked across two bays.

[Pixies]

34 minutes ago, Macavity said:

I see the L2 Lagrange point is not totally empty (two current residents)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_at_Lagrange_points
No doubt anticipated, but be careful double parking? 🙂

The JWST will actually be in a 'halo' orbit around the L2 point, so that it is not eclipsed from the sun by the earth's shadow. This orbit is about the same diameter as the moon's orbit!  https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html