James Webb Space Telescope

RossKean

Well-Known Member
Anybody watching this stuff? Christmas Day launch. Will be halfway (distance) to its new home by this evening (7 days) but the full journey takes around 29 days (currently almost double the distance between Earth and the Moon).
Mission has been almost perfect so far and the JWST has used less fuel than expected during trajectory corrections which means the telescope could outlive its projected ten year lifespan. (In the absence of a mechanical or electronic failure, end-of-life comes when it is out of fuel for maneuvering to stay "on-station".) Several critical deployments have been made successfully so far and the sunshield and mirror itself are scheduled over the next week.

There is a great website that is tracking the progress in real time for anyone who is interested...

Where is Webb? - Link

I watched most of the launch program on Youtube (2 Hr. +)
(You can skip through the boring parts...)

 
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