NASA's next big space observatory is finally aloft, but it will be a while before it starts its science mission.
The Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope launched from French Guiana yesterday, kicking off a long-awaited mission to study the early universe. Telescope team members and the rest of us will have to be patient, for there is a lot of work to be done before it gets up and running.
The Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 is a spot 930,000 miles from our planet in the direction of Mars. It will take 29 days for the telescope to get there, and there will be a lot of action along the way.
The Christmas launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launch is live.
The observatory has 50 major deployment and 178 release mechanisms, according to a deployment-explaining video called "29 days on the Edge."
Menzel said that every single one of them must work. "Unfolding Webb is hands-down the most complicated activity we have ever done."
A few major milestones have been achieved by the man. After liftoff, it deployed its solar panels and began soaking up energy from the sun. The big telescope performed an engine burn that put it on course for L2.
There are a few big steps yet to come. For more information, see NASA's deployment site. The deployment schedule is flexible, so don't be alarmed if the times and dates change, or if some things happen out of order.
One day after launch, the high-gain antenna will be turned toward Earth to facilitate communications with its handler. A day after that, the spacecraft will perform another engine burn. The pallet holding the sun shield will be lowered three days after the launch.
The shield's five sheets are too large to fit inside the rocket's payload fairing, which is about the size of a tennis court. The sun shield must be unfurled.
This is a very complex process. NASA officials said in the video that the sun shield structure has 140 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assembly, 400 pulleys, 90 cables and eight deployment motors, all of which have to work properly for the five layers to deploy as planned.
The protective cover will come off at five days after launch, and the booms will last a day later. The deployment of Sunshield should be completed by eight days after liftoff, when team members will start focusing on the optics.
The second surface of the secondary mirror will be extended at around 10 days after the launch.
It will be time for the mirror to shine. The mirror folded up as the sun shield did. The mirror's two side "wings" will lock into place after 12 to 13 days after launch.
At that point, the final configuration will be made. The huge observatory will arrive at its destination more than two weeks later, after another engine burn, and after a different set of ramp-up procedures begin.
The team will align the primary mirror segments to make them a single light-collecting surface. The mirror needs to be perfect to an accuracy of 150 nanometers. A sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick.
"One of our scientists calculated that we move those mirrors literally slower than grass grows as we're lining them up so incredibly precisely," said Jonathan Gardner, a deputy senior project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
The team will be testing and calibrating the four scientific instruments. The goal is to start regular science operations six months after launch.
"We're looking at the end of June," he said.
The observing time will be broken down into a variety of projects by peer review, as is done with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The new observatory will be ready to go when the first year of the new projects is over.
"It's going to be crazy," he said.
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