The James Webb Space Telescope mirrors undergoing cryogenic testing. NASA Ball Aerospace
NASA announced March 27 that the launch of its next flagship astronomy spacecraft, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be delayed an additional year and that the mission is likely to overrun its $8 billion cost cap.
The decision came after an independent assessment by the project's Standing Review Board (SRB) of the remaining tasks, all of which are part of the final stage of integration and testing before the JWST launches.
"This is a pivotal year for Webb when the 6.5-meter telescope and science payload element will be joined with the spacecraft element to form the complete observatory", NASA reports in Tuesday's release.
Testing is extremely important for any observatory, but this one perhaps more so than previous projects.
" Webb will certainly trip to an orbit concerning a million miles from the Earth- 4 times additionally compared to the moon", Zurbuchen stated at the press conference. Add to that the spacecraft's complex transition from its launch configuration, during which its large sunshield and primary mirror will be folded up, to its final design, with a 6.5-meter primary mirror (Hubble's is just over 2 meters) and a sunshield spanning almost 70 x 47 feet (21 x 14 meters), and testing the telescope's many components becomes vital.
Not only does all of this represent a very technically-challenging feet, it is the first time that any space telescope has had to perform it. Engineers then will integrate and test the fully assembled observatory and verify all components work together properly. In 2011, the project was reorganized, with a new launch date in 2018, and Congress allotted a budget of $8.8 billion to get there. NASA and Northrop Grumman have identified fixes for these problems, but their repair has added months of delays to the project, and engineers can not be sure that more issues will not crop up during further testing. At this point the James Webb Space Telescope is probably "too big to fail", but NASA could well face sharp congressional criticism over the coming round of overruns.
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Weather Forecast For Tuesday March 27
Precipitation chances look small as well but enough to where we have to take it day by day to continue to monitor the chances. Tuesday , mostly cloudy with a high near 51 followed by a warm Wednesday , mostly cloudy with a high near 66.
First Alert Weather Day for Parts of West Texas
The biggest threats will be large hail and damaging wind gusts with an isolated tornado threat so make sure to stay weather aware. The High Wind Watch issued by the National Weather Service earlier on Monday has been bumped up to a High Wind Warning.
"Considering the investment NASA and our global partners have made, we want to proceed systematically through these last tests, with the additional time necessary, to be ready for a May 2020 launch", NASA official Thomas Zurbuchen said in the news release.
Where does the project stand now?
NASA will be adding personnel from Goddard Space Flight Center to monitor the integration of the telescope's two halves at Northrop Grumman's facility in California. The telescope has passed a milestone 100-day test in a vacuum chamber to simulate conditions in space, and its delicate sunshield has been completely packed into its launch configuration and successfully unfurled (no easy task, considering it is created to do so in zero gravity, which can't be achieved on the ground). NASA has established an external Independent Review Board, chaired by Thomas Young, to assess the program.
During those tests, tensioning problems with the cables created what Zurbuchen called a "snagging hazard" that resulted in several small tears in all five layers of the sunshield membrane. That panel's recommendations and NASA's own findings will be combined in a report to be delivered to Congress this summer. "If we breach the 8 billion expense that was set out in the legislative appropriations, the job will certainly should be reauthorized by Congress".
Going forward, the telescope will be further tweaked and then tested under a variety of environmental conditions to simulate the effects of both the launch and operation once it's been placed into orbit. "However, work performance challenges that were brought to light have prompted us to take some action". After its launch, JWST's results will help astronomers to better understand the processes that have shaped and will continue to shape our universe.
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