The Webb telescope has launched

Another important step completed , Webb's Sun shield has been tensioned.

This is it: we’ve just wrapped up one of the most challenging steps of our journey to #UnfoldTheUniverse.

With all five layers of sunshield tensioning complete, about 75% of our 344 single-point failures have been retired!
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Webb's secondary mirror has just been successfully deployed ahead of the upcoming headline event ... main mirror deployment , NASA will start that operation in the coming days and once that's done we're almost ready to go hunting Aliens.

Secondary mirror deployed! But there's little time to pause and reflect.

Teams will ensure
@NASAWebb
's tripod structure is latched before beginning its final major milestone this week: full deployment of the space telescope's honeycomb-shaped primary mirror.
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Today Webb has deployed its radiator ahead of the start of the main mirror deployment which starts tomorrow and is scheduled to complete on Sunday , after that there's a couple of small things left to do then we have to wait until the telescope arrives at its orbital position in just under 3 weeks.

Space telescope radiators: they’re instrumental!

Our “trap door” is now open: the ADIR (Aft Deployable Instrument Radiator) has swung out from the back of the telescope to radiate heat from our science instruments into space.
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after that there's a couple of small things left to do then we have to wait until the telescope arrives at its orbital position in just under 3 weeks.

Lets hope everything will work just fine , The lagrange points are a perfect place for space telescopes but unlike with the hubble they can't just send up a crew to fix a possible error.

i have trust though

originally posted by: YouSir
a reply to: Bluntone22

And what’s with using the French Ariana rocket to launch this thing…when SpaceX could have launched it years ago…for much less money…

It would not have launched years ago on SpaceX. The Ariane V launch vehicle was not the reason for the delays, but rather the telescope itself. Ariane V has been around for 20 years and has an excellent track record, especially over the past decade.

And if NASA did choose to use a SpaceX Falcon launch vehicle instead of an Ariane, the Webb Telescope would have needed to be designed to fold up even smaller than it had to for the Ariane. The payload fairing of a Falcon is smaller than the payload fairing of an Ariane, and the telescope -- in its current design -- would not have fit in a SpaceX fairing.

SpaceX could have potentially designed a larger fairing, but the Falcon is tested and rated on the fairing it has. A different fairing would change the flight characteristics, and it would have required additional test launches (which would have been additional money) to be flight rated by NASA.

Main mirror deployment is ongoing and going to plan.

Click! We just fired the last 4 of #NASAWebb's 178 release mechanisms, or pins — all of which had to work perfectly for this unfolding to take place. These 4 will release the restraints that held Webb's mirror wing safely in place during launch. #UnfoldTheUniverse
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Live coverage.

The final piece of the puzzle is in place , we have a mirror , with the final mission critical deployment in place it's on to the L2 point now where the fun starts.

a reply to: gortex

2/3rds of the way there (deployment moves). And these were the “difficult” ones!!



And now some cooling, final checks on the main mirror (the motors worked on earth bothe before and after the shake test, so we should be good).

But this is the telescope from hell… so who knows?!!

See you in June!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

See you in June!!

Absolutely mate , a Summer of discovery awaits after what has been a dream start for Webb.

Are we nearly there yet ?

Tomorrow Webb will reach Lagrange Point 2 , a course correction thruster firing is planned for 2pm to insert webb into its L2 orbit then NASA will begin to fine tune the mirror segments.

Thirty days outbound from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will slip into its parking orbit a million miles away Monday, an ideal spot to scan the heavens in search of faint infrared light from the first generation of stars and galaxies.

But getting there — and successfully deploying a giant sunshade, mirrors and other appendages along the way — was just half the fun.

Scientists and engineers now have to turn the $10 billion Webb into a functioning telescope, precisely aligning its 18 primary mirror segments so they work together as a single 21.3-foot-wide mirror, by far the largest ever launched.

Earlier this week, the mission operations team remotely completed a multi-day process to raise each segment, and the telescope’s 2.4-foot-wide secondary mirror, a half inch out of the launch locks that held them firmly in place during the observatory’s Christmas Day climb to space atop a European Ariane 5 rocket.

Now fully deployed, the 18 segments currently are aligned to within about a millimeter or so. For the telescope to achieve a razor-sharp focus, that alignment must be fined tuned to within 1/10,000th of the width of a human hair using multiple actuators to tilt and even change a segment’s shape if required.
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Scientists began debating the need for a next infrared telescope after Hubble in the late 1980s, before Hubble even went into space. The design of the device began in 1996, and the launch of the James Webb was originally supposed to take place between 2007 and 2011. However, the launch was repeatedly postponed, the development became more expensive, and at some point, American legislators even thought about stopping funding the project. Ultimately, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) convinced Congress to continue disbursing funds, and by the time the project was launched, the total cost of the project was $9.7 billion.

The successful launch of the James Webb into outer space is only the beginning of the period of about a month it will take for the telescope to reach its ultimate goal, which is the Lagrange point L₂ of the Sun-Earth system. During the flight, the telescope will deploy a solar panel, which is necessary to provide energy to the systems, as well as an antenna for communication with the Earth. The most difficult step will be the deployment of the 6.5-meter composite mirror, which requires its elements to be joined together with the highest precision in order to work properly.

After the James Webb reaches its goal, NASA engineers will test its systems and equipment for several months to make sure they are working. It is expected that the first images of "James Webb" will transmit to Earth next summer.

NASA have revealed the first Star that Webb will look at , the Star is HD 84406 which is 260 light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major , the Star will be used as a target to start mirror alignment.

Star light, star bright…the first star Webb will see is HD 84406, a Sun-like star about 260 light years away. While it will be too bright for Webb to study once the telescope is in focus, it’s a perfect target for Webb to gather engineering data & start mirror alignment.
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Animation of the James Webb Space Telescope mirror alignment.