JWST Status Update

[wstrohm]

Nowhere else to put this... but it's very significant and thought it might be of interest. Work was started in 1995 on this monster.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-has-completed-testing
and

 

[wstrohm]

Latest launch date is December 18, 2021. Launch Site Map:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Rue...8e18789ce92dd3c!2m2!1d-52.7684137!2d5.2403054

(Map is interactive.)

 

[wstrohm]

Deleted (duplicate post, sorry.)

 

[wstrohm]

Deleted (obsolete information).

 

[wstrohm]

Current JWST status:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...ope-arrives-in-french-guiana-after-sea-voyage

 

[wstrohm]

The Journey: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

 

[wstrohm]

JWST unpacked at launch preparation site:

 

[craighazan]

I hope they don’t drop it.

 

[craighazan]

Would be interested to know what chips are inside. Perseverance landed and is happily roaming around Mars thanks to a 1998 G3 iMac.

 

[wstrohm]

I hope they don’t drop it.

My real concern is that raising the JWST (6.5 tons) from horizontal to vertical without overhead support in a one G environment puts a lot of bending moment on the cantilevered structure. At Northrop Grumman, even opening and closing the mirror's wings (which are very light) involved overhead-provided compensating support to cancel the mirrors' weight. I'm sure JWST won't "break," but those photos make me nervous that the telescopic mechanism that raises the mirror assembly from the sunshield might bind up in space, if it has been stressed by force due to torque here on Earth. And I don't think that function is planned to be tested again before launch.

[Edit: No point in worrying about that, I guess... probably already analyzed to death by the gurus.]