NASA's James Webb Space Telescope passes crucial launch-simulation tests:
NASA's next big space telescope just took another step toward its highly anticipated 2021 launch.
The $9.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope has passed "environmental testing," a series of trials designed to simulate the considerable rigors of launch, NASA officials announced today (Oct. 6).
"The successful completion of our observatory environmental tests represent[s] a monumental milestone in the march to launch," Webb project manager Bill Ochs, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said today in a statement. "Environmental testing demonstrates Webb's ability to survive the rocket ride to space, which is the most violent portion of its trip to orbit approximately a million miles from Earth."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2020, @09:54PM
Nature of the biz. You spend a decent chunk of your working career, say, on a planetary probe, then have it be DOA or something. It isn't wasted time and effort for the skills and experience you develop (and if you're lucky, you've gotten a number of refereed pubs and/or conference talks out of it), but it is a major major disappointment nonetheless.