NASA and ESA officials confirmed that the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope will very likely be delayed from late October to at least mid-November 2021. As we reported last month, the normally reliable Ariane 5 struggled with two issues – previous launches, which resulted in unexpected vehicle accelerations as the fairing separated from the missile. The fairing is the nose cone used to protect a spacecraft’s payload during launch and acceleration through Earth’s atmosphere.
“Indeed, there was an anomaly that was recently mentioned in the media,” said Daniel de Chambure, acting director of Ariane 5 adaptations, during a media briefing about JWST. “The source of the problem has been found; Corrective action has been taken. “
De Chambure added that the final testing is in progress and a qualifying exam has begun, “so we should be able to confirm all of this in a few days or weeks. This shouldn’t jeopardize James Webb’s launch in any way, ”he said.
Endangered, hopefully not. But delay, yes.
Officials at the briefing, including NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s assistant administrator for the Science Missions Directorate, did not provide any information on how long the delay might actually be.
Officials confirmed that the telescope will be delivered to ESA’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, in late August. From the time it begins shipping, it will take 10 weeks for the telescope to be ready for launch and 55 days after it arrives to load the telescope onto the rocket. When a media representative worked out the schedule for a market launch in mid-November at the earliest, Zurbuchen said the assessment was “almost correct. I really have nothing to add. ”
However, he added that Arianespace and ESA had been transparent about information about possible delays over the past decade.
“We have all the information we need,” said Zurbuchen. We had in-depth technical discussions with all those involved, which were geared towards one goal: to create mission success. “
The James Webb Space Telescope in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Photo credit: NASA / JSC
However, while the most recent anomalies occurred during the last two Ariane 5 launches, the payloads were successfully put into orbit. There are two Ariane launches on the manifest ahead of the JWST launch, and these launches are now expected in June and August 2021 at the earliest.
While the JWST project has a well-known and well-documented history of significant deadline delays and project cost increases, the project has recently achieved significant technical milestones such as the successful completion of the last acoustic and vibration tests in October 2020 and the conduct of sunshade Deployment drills in December 2020. This spring, the primary mirror was opened for the last time on Earth before the telescope was packed for launch.
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