L2 is the second lagrange point and the new home of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The image is from NASA.
The James Webb Space Telescope reached its final destination today after traveling almost a million miles.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful observatory ever to launch to space. Since its successful takeoff, the $10 billion telescope has been busy deploy its various systems and structures and traveling over 930,000 miles to its new home: L2, the second sun-Earth lag point. In space, lagrange points are stable.
After a one-day delay, he arrived at L2 today.
"Webb, welcome home!" Nelson said in the post. Thanks to the team for all of their hard work to make the safe Arrival at L2 today. We are one step closer to discovering the mysteries of the universe. I can't wait to see the first new views of the universe this summer.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope mission is live.
There are photos of the Christmas launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope will burn into the sky around L2 on January 24, 2022. The image is from NASA.
The sun shield and other vital parts have been slowly unfolding over the past 30 days. The 18 hexagonal segments that make up the gold primary mirror were deployed on Thursday.
Hundreds of single-point failures that could each spell disaster for Webb are included in the deployment process. It has been a long journey, but despite some nerves, it has made it through deployment and is on its way to L2.
The mid-course correction burn began after it arrived near L2 and took about five minutes to complete. According to the post, it is today.
This maneuver was built into the plan for safety. The Ariane 5 rocket that launched the observatory didn't send it all the way to L2 because the mission team wanted to make sure the observatory didn't overshoot its final destination. It would take a turn around to thrust back toward Earth, which would expose its instruments to the sun, overheating them, according to NASA. The instruments need to stay extremely cold in order to pick up the heat signatures from the early universe.
They were able to complete the final leg of the journey with their own small thrusters and a small amount of propellant because they didn't have enough thrust to get all the way to its final stop.
The four scientific instruments will be turned on once the telescope is in the air. It will take weeks for this cooling to be completed and for the temperature to be stable. Five months later, the telescope will be perfectly aligning and calibrating its instruments.
L2 will be the location of the lifetime of the Webb. The observatory was not intended to be refueled, so it was thought that it would only last 5 to 10 years in space. NASA officials wrote in a post-launch statement that the mission team now expects that the mission will have more than a 10-year science lifetime thanks to the job the Ariane 5 did on launch day.
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