JWST Countdown To Terror 😳

[Captain Scarlet]

So satisfying bang on projections.

What were the flakes floating around just after telescope separation? Carbon Dioxide?

[CCD-Freak]

I just found this good site to keep a constant watch on what's happening.

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

 

 

 

 

[Ouroboros]

Very relieved and pleased to see it’s on its way. 

[SuburbanMak]

19 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Happy birthday!

Thank you - that launch was a great present ! 

[inFINNity Deck]

15 hours ago, CCD-Freak said:

I just found this good site to keep a constant watch on what's happening.

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

Hmmm, clicking that link redirects to FB, here is the proper link:

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

Nicolàs

[tomato]

First course correction burn all good apparently.👍

[Laurieast]

Sorry if already mentioned, but there is a useful blog here with updates.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

 

[happy-kat]

https://webb.nasa.gov/

This looks like their homepage for this project the where is it page is live showing distance achieved

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by happy-kat

[kirkster501]

Glad the critical first burn worked.  That was crucial or else it wouldn't have made L2 - I read about that a few weeks ago.

[kirkster501]

It's a shame there aren't more "webcam" style cameras on it so we can see what is going on.  I am sure they considered it but I think JWST is complex enough without adding extra none-essential stuff like that on board.

[Alien 13]

19 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

It's a shame there aren't more "webcam" style cameras on it so we can see what is going on.  I am sure they considered it but I think JWST is complex enough without adding extra none-essential stuff like that on board.

I would have thought lots of cameras to be vital in case they had to "work through" a problem that could arise.

Alan

[kirkster501]

26 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I would have thought lots of cameras to be vital in case they had to "work through" a problem that could arise.

Alan

Yes indeed.  There are plenty of them that could still arise too.  Without tempting fate though, yesterday was a major hurdle. Rockets can and do blow up on the launch pad as we all know.  The earlier MCC burn was crucial too.  Shows the fuel systems are working and pressurised.

Some great pictures here:

Newest! Webb in Kourou, French Guiana | Flickr

 

 

[maw lod qan]

Really nice link to the photos Kirkster501!

I would enjoy seeing it unfold and the snap together. For it to be perfectly collimated is amazing!

[Ags]

I can understand going to dark sites, but this is taking it to extremes!

[Gfamily]

This is a good dashboard for tracking its progress and stages in the deployment

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

[CCD-Freak]

I just saw this first engineering image from JWST.  8^P

 

[tomato]

Thanks for the photos link. I’m presuming it’s got more hard scientific telemetry than you can shake a stick at, but maybe NASA doesn’t have the same YouTube generation PR mindset that seems to exist over at SpaceX.

[kirkster501]

High gain antenna deployed. I think the big stuff starts tomorrow with the sun shield pallets starting to be dropped down. 

[Sunshine]

Now that the excitement and butterflies in the stomach feeling brought on by launch has subsided, it seems a bit surreal that this magnificent piece of engineering is finally where it belongs. Over the years I have watched every video I could find, read every scrap I could dig up online, and thought about someone coming along and scrapping the project for some reason. Now there is no turning back, no more daydreaming about launch being so far off I may never see it, someone pinch me (not too hard I bruise easy).

[tomato]

Yes, when I watched that huge piece of super high technology coasting away into the blackness of space all on it’s own, I sort of understood why the scientists and engineers took so long getting it ready for that moment.

[kirkster501]

A lot to test and a lot to go wrong. They would have tested it within an inch of its life but at some point they have to commit. They said that even in tests, very occasionally the sunshield didn’t fully work.

On the ground it was consuming millions of dollars per day too, even more when in Kourou. Fingers crossed for the next few days. 

[tomato]

Spare a thought for all those technicians in bunny suits fussing around it every day for that last ten years or so, what are they going to do now?

Edited December 27, 2021 by tomato

[Rusted]

8 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

A lot to test and a lot to go wrong. They would have tested it within an inch of its life but at some point they have to commit. They said that even in tests, very occasionally the sunshield didn’t fully work.

On the ground it was consuming millions of dollars per day too, even more when in Kourou.

Almost as much as Bruce Willis or Dwayne Johnson would earn.
For chasing it down and hitting it with a large wrench in the middle an asteroid storm! 

[johninderby]

52 minutes ago, tomato said:

Spare a thought for all those technicians in bunny suits fussing around it every day for that last ten years or so, what are they going to do now?

There is the next space telescope project. the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope 

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/about-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope

Edited December 27, 2021 by johninderby

[Mr Spock]

Following the 'Where is Webb' site. Amazing to see how rapidly the distance is increasing.

Shame the default settings for a science site are miles and °F though (you can change it). I do hope they haven't mixed up imperial and metric when constructing it like has happened before