Posted on 11/23/2021 12:19:11 AM PST by blueplum
The long-awaited launch of the nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is slipping at least four days, from December 18 to no earlier than December 22, after an incident during processing in French Guiana that briefly jostled the costly observatory....
...The incident occurred in a processing facility at the Ariane 5 launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. A high-tension "clamp band," used to attach the telescope to an adapter that will, in turn, be mounted atop the rocket's upper stage, suddenly released on its own, briefly shaking the observatory....
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Needs a hose clamp...
Duct tape.
Super glue and baking soda.
Hose clamps.
Resume count down.
This thing had better be good.
They finally realized that the Webb Telescope and the Hubble Telescope together created a name that brings bad vibes and Hillary’s wrath.
The only way the engineers could come up with to test this was to put a fully assembled electronic unit in a test cell and blow it up with plastic explosives. Let’s just say the first few tests didn’t go too well, with circuit boards, or pieces of circuit boards, blown right through the aluminum casing of the boxes they were in. They eventually figured out a way to enable it to survive intact, but I never heard how they did it. Sorry about the missing punch line, but it was still an interesting episode. I’ve always wondered how they could possibly meet that spec.
“...to be able to survive over 4,000 Gs.”
Yikes! Now that’s a challenge!
Kudos!
Focus, people. FOCUS!
Does NASA usually launch from that facility? Is it because of the location near the equator? And is it being launched atop a French rocket?
And why not. This beast has been behind schedule for a decade
France ... need we say more?
Does NASA usually launch from that facility? Is it because of the location near the equator? And is it being launched atop a French rocket?
—
no, yes. yes
I’m fairly convinced the JW telescope will never survive to get us any data.
LOL! In all the years I’ve been following politics and the space program, I never thought to make that connection. You’ve jinxed it now!😮
Sounds like you had a really interesting job!
Hubble’s discoveries are still standing the scientific community on its ear.
Webb promises to stand Hubble on its ear.
Webb Hubbell, that is a name from the past. I remember him sitting on CNN every day blathering. They should build one called James Carville or Snakehead for short.
It was! I only worked there for a couple of years before starting college, and was at the bottom of the totem pole as an electronics technician, but the variety of projects I got to work on was amazing. We worked on everything from the aforementioned Titan and MX, to the Space Shuttle (caution and warning system, reaction control system, and Manned Maneuvering Unit), to the Galileo Jupiter probe (onboard computers and memory units), and “Special Projects” (classified products for a certain National Reconnaissance group). It was truly amazing.
The only downside was that at that time (early ‘80s), the company was almost totally dependent upon defense and other federal contracts, which made their business very boom or bust. You were either working mandatory overtime, at 72 to 80 hours per week, or were laid off. There was no in between. I eventually got laid off, so decided to go ahead and start college at that point, but it was an incredible experience, especially at such a young age.
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