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NASA’s next flagship observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, is gearing up for launch into space Friday morning—finally. The Webb telescope is the largest observatory ever built to be launched into space. Its 18 gold-plated mirrors form a much more sensitive system than the Hubble Space Telescope, which it will succeed as humanity’s most powerful scientific instrument for studying the formation of our universe and distant worlds in our galaxy.
But with a price tag of nearly $10 billion, Webb has passed one of the fullest development timelines of any space program, taking more than two decades and costing billions more than its original estimate.
“What they encountered was what many space programs faced, because on a spaceship like this everything has to be perfect – once you launch it, you can’t fix it,” said Cristina Chaplain, who led the inspections for roughly a decade. James Webb Space Telescope, Government Accountability Office, Congressional surveillance agency.
“It’s very complex and fragile,” he said. “There will be mistakes, but in a program like this one little bit can have dramatic consequences.”
A look at some of the loose screws, cost overruns, sea voyages, and political controversies the James Webb Space Telescope and its supporters endured on their way to the launch pad.
$1 billion and was launched in 2010.
Hubble planned a telescope after it started in 1996, but Webb didn’t get its current name until 2002. NASA chose Northrop Grumman to build it, raising the cost from $1 billion to $3.5 billion. Mission managers expected it to be released as early as 2010.
Construction of Webb’s most complex structures—main science instruments and its massive 18-plate mirror—began in 2004. In 2005, a review led to redesigns to reduce technical complexity.
$4.5 billion and was launched in 2013.
Although less complex, the telescope has become more expensive with the price tag swelling It reached $4.5 billion, and NASA officials estimated a new launch date in 2013.
Around 2009, engineers and NASA officials in the construction of the telescope began grappling with the challenge of inventing, building, and testing the latest technologies.
One difficulty is that the observatory “cryo-coolerTo protect Webb’s ultra-sensitive infrared sensors and computers from overheating in space. Development of the telescope micro shutter array, a small instrument crucial to studying large areas of the sky, was also difficult. The postage-stamp-sized device contains about 248,000 tiny shutters or windows—each only a few times larger than a human hair—that open and close to let light in.
It turned out that the telescope could not be built for the amount of money that Congress had allocated.
$8.8 billion and will be released in 2018.
An independent review of the program commissioned by Congress in 2010 found that “the program was very distressing and unable to meet its cost and program deadlines and was not properly funded, and a lot of it. management and oversight issues,” said Ms. Chaplain.
“I think it was a bit of a surprise,” he said. “It hit Congress pretty hard.”
The review estimated a new cost of $6.5 billion and a launch date of September 2015. In response, some lawmakers proposed a bill that would cancel the telescope entirely.
But NASA promised to get the program back on track and prepared new estimates: with the October 2018 launch date, a total of $8.8 billion in fees, including development and management of the telescope after launch.
To keep NASA in check, Congress capped the program’s development cost at $8 billion and required Ms. Chaplain’s team at GAO to conduct annual inspections. “It’s probably the first time we’ve been asked to look at a large NASA program every year,” he said.
$9.6 billion and will be released in 2021.
Construction of the telescope was completed in 2016. That’s when NASA and Northrop Grumman discovered a new set of insects.
The agency’s chief of science, Thomas Zurbuchen, announced in 2017 that NASA should launch the telescope in 2019 because “the integration of various spacecraft elements is taking longer than expected.” It is not the result of any accident. The agency stated that there is no need for any increase in the budget of the program.
Then, an independent review in 2018 found that a handful of human errors were causing more delays and increased costs. The telescope’s drive valves were damaged when engineers used the wrong solvent to clean them. During the vibration tests, dozens of screws securing the telescope’s massive sun shield came loose. And faulty wiring during the tests sent overvoltages to the observatory’s converters.
“The fault should have been identified by the inspector who did not inspect but trusted the technician’s word that the wiring was correct,” the 2018 report said.
Fears grew that test setbacks would cause NASA to exceed its $8 billion development funding limit. Human errors cost the program $600 million and caused 18-month delays, the report said. Then, in the summer, NASA, acting on the report’s recommendations, announced a new date: President Trump’s NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that Webb would launch on March 30, 2021. from twitter.
The agency also concluded that the cost of new development would be $8.8 billion, exceeding the cap by $800 million. The total cost of the program, including post-launch operations, rose to $9.6 billion.
Last minute excitement on Webb’s long journey.
Program disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic further delayed Webb’s release in 2021.
At the same time, another obstacle arose: Telescope name questioned. NASA administrator James Webb, who played a central role in the Apollo program, also served as secretary of state in the Truman administration. During his tenure, thousands of gays and lesbians were fired from government jobs in a period known as the Lavender Fear. NASA ultimately refused to rename the telescope.
In June, four months before Webb’s expected launch, NASA and ESA officials delayed the launch further to review the successful operation of the Ariane 5 rocket.
After these concerns were addressed, the agencies set a start date of December 18. The telescope was taken from California to French Guiana in October during a 16-day trek through the Panama Canal. Partly done in secret apart from piracy concerns.
After two decades of turbulent delays and cost overruns, the telescope has finally arrived at its launch site. But the telescope hasn’t been spared some late performance concerns.
The launch date for December 18 was shifted to December 22 in early November after a band of clamps that helped secure the telescope to the launch slot unexpectedly came loose, causing the telescope to shake and cause concern but not damage. The 22 December launch was delayed to 24 December last week after glitches in a cable that helps the telescope communicate with ground systems.
Greg Robinson, NASA’s telescope program director, told reporters on Tuesday that the problem remains, but that he hopes the problem will be resolved once Webb and his rocket are taken to the launch pad.
Whenever that happens, it depends on the weather. The 24 December launch plans were delayed to 25 December due to strong winds near the launch site.
Now Christmas morning awaits the most important launch date of NASA’s most powerful space telescope.
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