The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is probably one of NASA's most exciting missions in the near future. The telescope has been completed and shipped to its launch site in French Guiana. JWST has made a grueling trek through waterways, and the current plan is to launch later this year.
Before launch, it is clear that there is still a lot of preparatory work to be done. NASA currently expects preparations to last 55 days from its arrival to its launch date. Weber initially arrived at the Arianespace cleanroom facility, where he was inspected to ensure its cleanliness was not contaminated. The journey from its construction site to its launch site is 5800 miles.
The engineering team has conducted the final set of electrical and functional tests on the telescope. They ensured that the telescope's retracting machinery was configured to allow it to unfold correctly after entering orbit. After these inspections were completed, a task force began loading Weber with its fuel, including hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. This combination of fuels will power the rocket thrusters, allowing the telescope to remain in orbit.
Once full of fuel, JWST will head to the Vehicle Integration Building and be fitted there on the Ariane 5 rocket. Once integrated into the rocket, technicians and engineers will remove all red labels indicating removal prior to flight and add any green label items indicating components that need to be installed before flight. Once these steps are complete, the rocket fairing that protects the payload during launch will be locked in place.
When the rocket fairing is locked in place, JWST will be ready to launch into orbit. The launch was made at the European Spaceport, also known as the Guyana Space Center. Once the integration is complete, the rocket will be moved to the launch pad a few days before the scheduled lift. All electrical connections that allow the rocket to be controlled from the control chamber will be connected via an umbilical cord connection that is separated at liftoff.
NASA said that about an hour before the rocket is scheduled to launch, it will switch from an external power source to an onboard battery. As of November 2, JWST is about 29 days away from launch, and work is underway. Once on track, the most stressful parts of the project will begin. The telescope must unfold and lock its final configuration, otherwise all the work from the beginning to the present may be in vain.
The telescope will travel nearly a million miles from Earth after entering orbit and begin observing the universe. NASA is also talking about the timescales on which things happen after the launch. 206 seconds after liftoff, the rocket's fairing will separate about 75 miles above Earth's atmosphere. This will expose JWST to space for the first time.
About 28 minutes after launch, the telescope will separate from the rocket, and about 31 to 33 minutes after launch, the solar panels will protrude to stop the depletion of their batteries. The solar panels will provide about two kilowatts of electricity to the airborne battery system. About two hours after launch, NASA will deploy an airborne medium- and high-gain antenna platform to establish communication with Earth. About 12.5 hours after launch, the telescope will activate its thrusters. About 3 days after launch, the visor of the telescope will unfold and allow for the continued expansion of the observatory. This will be the first step for all major deployments, which should take about five hours. Four days after launch, an expandable tower extension separates the telescope's mirror instrument from the spacecraft.
The process of deploying all 18 main mirror segments will take about 10 days, ending on the 25th day after launch. Finally, on the 29th day after launch, the thrusters will be launched and Webb in its final orbit, which will mark the end of one of the most complex deployment sequences ever recorded.