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The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope has been delayed yet again:
The launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been rescheduled to occur sometime between March and June 2019 from French Guiana. The delay follows a schedule assessment of the remaining integration and test activities that need to occur prior to launch. The JWST was previously scheduled to launch in October 2018. "The change in launch timing is not indicative of hardware or technical performance concerns," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington, said in a NASA press release. "Rather, the integration of the various spacecraft elements is taking longer than expected."
The change in launch window request has been coordinated with the European Space Agency (ESA), which is providing the Ariane 5 launch vehicle for the JWST. As part of an agreement with ESA, NASA recently conducted a routine schedule assessment to ensure launch preparedness and determined that a reschedule was necessary.
While testing of the telescope and science instruments at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, continues to go well and remain on schedule, the spacecraft itself, made up of the spacecraft bus and sunshield, has experienced delays during its integration and testing at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. "Webb's spacecraft and sunshield are larger and more complex than most spacecraft," said Eric Smith, program director for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The combination of some integration activities taking longer than initially planned, such as the installation of more than 100 sunshield membrane release devices, factoring in lessons learned from earlier testing, like longer time spans for vibration testing, has meant the integration and testing process is just taking longer. Considering the investment NASA has made, and the good performance to date, we want to proceed very systematically through these tests to be ready for a Spring 2019 launch."
An upside? A better chance of being prepared to image Planet Nine during the 5-10 year operating life of JWST.
Also at NASA.
(Score: 1) by rylyeh on Monday October 02 2017, @04:54AM (6 children)
Damm!
Of course, this all must be done properly but just - Damm!
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 02 2017, @05:06AM
It's a blow.
At least there is no way to delay the Jan. 1, 2019 New Horizons flyby of 2014 MU69 [wikipedia.org].
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by julian on Monday October 02 2017, @06:36AM (4 children)
Ariane 5 has a 95.7% success rate. That's pretty good for rocket launches, but the James Webb has been in development since 1996. That's a long time to spend on something that could go BOOM 1/20 times.
I am glad that they are minimizing the problems they can control. We don't want any extra problems added to the Ariane 5 launch risk.
JWST should be a revolution in astronomy. I'm very excited for the decade of science beginning in 2020. With the new Hawaiian 30-meter telescope finally moving forward we should be learning some amazing things in the first half of the 21st century.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aiwarrior on Monday October 02 2017, @07:19AM
While i agree with you, I also think that a lot of the time spent is one-time effort, which in case of a boom, would not need to be repeated. Of course it would delay perhaps 1 or 2 years but it would not start all over again.
Regardless, go go James Webb
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday October 02 2017, @11:24AM (2 children)
Shame they couldn't afford to build two of everything. That way they'd have a backup.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @12:53PM (1 child)
First rule of government spending: why buy one when you can have two for twice the price?
Otoh, in that movie, having two for twice the price saved the day.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday October 02 2017, @01:13PM
Yeah, I guess that's partly what I was thinking of.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday October 02 2017, @07:10PM (1 child)
I know that we need it supercooled for the infrared science we need, and away from the planet and the infrared it radiates.
But dang, that seems like such a shame to spend so much time and money building such a cool toy, and not have a way to refuel the coolant, or switch it to visible afterwards.
A lot of spacecrafts don't even do science for 5 years for sure, but we're Hubblespoiled.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 02 2017, @07:37PM
Unclear (to me):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Comparisons [wikipedia.org]
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