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NASA Nudges James Webb Telescope Launch Date After 'Sudden, Unplanned' Vibration Incident

posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:55PM   
from the burp dept.

upstart writes:

NASA nudges James Webb telescope launch date after 'sudden, unplanned' vibration incident:

The James Webb Space Telescope is a very big, very overdue and very sensitive project. After years of delays, it was supposed to launch on Dec. 18 and become the newest flagship observatory. The launch has now been moved to no earlier than Dec. 22 after an incident during launch preparations.

The telescope is in the process of getting together with the Ariane 5 rocket that will escort it into space. "A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band — which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter — caused a vibration throughout the observatory," NASA said in a statement Monday.

[...] NASA expects to deliver an update on the telescope's condition at the end of the week.

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Original Submission

• On the delay (Score: 5, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday November 24 2021, @02:52PM

  by khallow (3766) on Wednesday November 24 2021, @02:52PM (#1199210) Journal

  The long delay in the launch of the JWST is just a symptom of a deeper problem: NASA's thin herd of white elephants. Takyon linked [soylentnews.org] to how broken the JWST really is. (The telescope that ate astronomy [nature.com].)

  It has to work — for astronomers, there is no plan B. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to launch in 2014, is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the key to almost every big question that astronomers hope to answer in the coming decades. Its promised ability to peer back through space and time to the formation of the first galaxies made it the top priority in the 2001 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey, one of a series of authoritative, ten-year plans drafted by the US astronomy community. And now, the stakes are even higher. Without the JWST, the bulk of the science goals listed in the 2010 decadal survey, released this August, will be unattainable.
  
  [...]
  
  Hence the astronomers' anxiety: the risks are also astronomical. The JWST's 6.5-metre primary mirror, nearly three times the diameter of Hubble's, will be the largest ever launched into space. The telescope will rely on a host of untried technologies, ranging from its sensitive light-detecting instrumentation to the cooling system that will keep the huge spacecraft below 50 kelvin. And it will have to operate perfectly on the first try, some 1.5 million kilometres from Earth — four times farther than the Moon and beyond the reach of any repair mission. If the JWST — named after the administrator who guided NASA through the development of the Apollo missions — fails, the progress of astronomy could be set back by a generation.
  
  And yet, as critical as it is for them, astronomers' feelings about the JWST are mixed. To support a price tag that now stands at roughly US$5 billion, the JWST has devoured resources meant for other major projects, none of which can begin serious development until the binge is over. Missions such as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, designed to study the Universe's dark energy and designated the top-priority space-astronomy project in the most recent decadal survey, will have to wait until after the JWST has launched. "Until then, we're not projecting being able to afford large investments" in new missions, says Jon Morse, director of NASA's astrophysics division. And all the space telescopes currently operated by NASA and the European Space Agency will reach the end of their planned lifetimes in the next few years.
  
  Worse, the JWST's costs keep growing. In 2009, NASA required an extra $95 million to cover cost overruns on the telescope. In 2010 it needed a further $20 million. And for 2011 it has requested another $60 million — even as rumours are swirling that still more cash infusions will be required (see 'Cost curve').boxed-text

  It goes on and on. It's not just delay. It's not just ballooning costs. It's not just the massive delays in further science and research. There's this huge dysfunction which has greatly reduced the scientific capabilities of NASA with the obsession on building a few white elephants that suck resources that could have been used for a lot of science.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+4
  Insightful=2, Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=4
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		5