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."
(Score: 3, Informative) by toddestan on Friday June 12 2020, @06:08PM (1 child)
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
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