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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday June 11 2020, @09:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the Covid-19-strikes-again dept.

James Webb Space Telescope will "absolutely" not launch in March:

On Wednesday, the chief of NASA's science programs said the James Webb Space Telescope will not meet its current schedule of launching in March 2021.

"We will not launch in March," said Thomas Zurbuchen, the space agency's associate administrator for science. "Absolutely we will not launch in March. That is not in the cards right now. That's not because they did anything wrong. It's not anyone's fault or mismanagement."

Zurbuchen made these comments at a virtual meeting of the National Academies' Space Studies Board. He said the telescope was already cutting it close on its schedule before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the agency and that the virus had led to additional lost work time.

"This team has stayed on its toes and pushed this telescope forward at the maximum speed possible," he said. "But we've lost time. Instead of two shifts fully staffed, we could not do that for all the reasons that we talk about. Not everybody was available. There were positive cases here and there. And so, perhaps, we had only one shift."

NASA and the telescope's prime contractor, Northrop Grumman, are evaluating the schedule going forward. This will include an estimate of when operations can completely return to normal—Zurbuchen said telescope preparation and testing activities are nearing full staffing again—and set a new date for a launch. This schedule review should conclude in July.

"I'm very optimistic about this thing getting off the launch pad in 2021," Zurbuchen said. "Of course, there is still a lot of mountain to climb."


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Unixnut on Thursday June 11 2020, @12:41PM (5 children)

    by Unixnut (5779) on Thursday June 11 2020, @12:41PM (#1006253)

    > Even if the Hubble fails, NASA has a very similar 'scope in cold storage [wikipedia.org], donated by the NRO. They donated two, but apparently NASA used one for WFIRST.

    It doesn't surprise me. The HST was based on the "Keyhole" spy satellites, just pointed at 180° to the rest.

    In fact, from what I remember. The HST was a keyhole satellite plucked straight from the manufacturing line, and handed over to NASA (minus the mirror and classified tech) who then ground the mirror and installed their own instruments. Apart from the internals, there should be plenty of compatible satellites out there.

    It is nice that they donated a couple more sats. It would be nice if they can be launched. The difficulty before was in there being nothing apart from the shuttle that could launch the scopes up there (well, the Russians have the capability, but I doubt the USA would ever let them near the sat).

    > I'm sure Musk would strap that 'scope on a lifter for a reasonable price.

    It would be nice, we can always do with more scopes in space, and bonus if the launch costs are reduced too.

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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday June 11 2020, @08:48PM (4 children)

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday June 11 2020, @08:48PM (#1006586)

    HST's mass is 11,110kg.

    If you subtract the mass of the orbiter from the Space Shuttle payload, the payload is only 24,400kg. Delta IV Heavy and Falcon Heavy can beat the Space Shuttle, and with a bigger payload fairing, they could launch both of the satellites in the same launch. Ariane 5, Delta IV, can do it easily; Atlas V could do it with only 1 SRB. Falcon 9 could lift it while recovering the first stage.

    The real problem is the expense. Big launches aren't cheap, and the ground support is expensive too. Hubble needed multiple servicing missions to keep it running, which isn't an option anymore, so these old satellites would cost a ton to get into flying shape.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday June 12 2020, @01:46PM (1 child)

      by Freeman (732) on Friday June 12 2020, @01:46PM (#1006856) Journal

      Would it be totally infeasible to use something like crew dragon to hook on to said satellite, provide a few repairs, and return to earth?

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by nitehawk214 on Friday June 12 2020, @10:01PM

        by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday June 12 2020, @10:01PM (#1007106)

        It would need a robotic arm to grab on to it with; and it doesn't have an airlock, so they would have to depressurize the entire capsule. I am not sure if current EVA suits fit through the Crew Dragon hatch.

        Maybe if Orion ever flies it will have this ability, as it will be bigger.

        But, a better plan is to make future satellites compatible with MEV or some future robotic repair spacecraft. Make the satellite modular enough, and its a matter of swapping out comms arrays, computers, instruments, reaction wheels, etc.

        --
        "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by toddestan on Friday June 12 2020, @06:08PM (1 child)

      by toddestan (4982) on Friday June 12 2020, @06:08PM (#1006994)

      I'm sure there's additional complication as the Hubble and Keyhole satellites are designed around being launched from the Shuttle's payload bay, using the Canadarm. I'm sure a system could be developed so that the Delta or Falcon rockets could launch these satellites, but it would have to be developed.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Friday June 12 2020, @10:07PM

        by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday June 12 2020, @10:07PM (#1007109)

        That might be why NRO handed these satellites over. After Challenger they had a lot of missions delayed due to the shuttle not flying as often as they expected. Their current ones go up on Atlas V and Delta IV/Heavy, and might already have this capability.

        My guess is we will never see these spare keyhole satellites fly. And with the big payload fairings of the current and future generation rockets, and mirror unfolding like JWST; there is probably no more need for these 2-meter class mirrors in space.

        --
        "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh