Featured Image:  NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope | Ariane 5 ECA Launch Livestream from The Everyday Astronaut, Cued to Final go at 27:40.

The Everyday Astronaut’s Tim Dodd is your color commentator for this live stream of the James Webb Space Telescope | Ariane 5 ECA launch from Christmas Day a few weeks ago.

The video above is cued to the Final Go before take-off.   Here are the other cue points from the Everyday Astronaut coverage:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:10 – Prelaunch Preview
• 11:50 – Q&A
• 27:40 – Final Go
• 33:45 – T – 1 Minute
• 34:50 – Liftoff!
• 37:00 – Booster Sep
• 38:10 – Fairing Sep
• 39:30 – SECO
• 43:30 – Stage Sep
• 01:01:50 – Payload Deploy
• 01:05:30 – Q&A and Celebration

About the Mission

Claire Percival, a contributor to the site, provides a brilliant, comprehensive breakdown of the satellite technology and the mission:

James Webb Space Telescope | Ariane 5 ECA | Everyday Astronaut

Here are some basic facts from her write-up:

Liftoff Time: December 25, 2021 – 12:20 UTC | 9:20 GFT
Mission Name: James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
Launch Provider(What rocket company is launching it?) Arianespace
Customer(Who’s paying for this?): Led by NASA, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Space Telescope Science Institute
Rocket:  Ariane 5
Launch Location: ELA-3, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, France
Payload mass: ~ 6,500 kg (14,300 lb)
Where is the spacecraft going? Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage? No
Where will the first stage land? It will crash into the Atlantic ocean
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings? No, this is not possible with the Ariane 5
Are these fairings new? Yes

The James Webb Space Telescope will launch atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Arianespace’s ELA-3 launch complex at the European Spaceport in French Guiana. After deployment, the spacecraft will make its way to the Earth-Sun L₂ Lagrange point. The space observatory is the product of collaboration between NASA, the ESA, and the CSA, and will succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission. It is expected to be operational for at least 5 and a half years, but hopefully stretching to 10.

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, is the largest space-based observatory ever built. It will be 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, Hubble, and will build on its 30 years of groundbreaking research. The JWST is optimized for infrared wavelengths and will provide unprecedented images and research that will help to expand our understanding of the universe.

The observatory has four primary goals:

1. To examine the first light in the Universe and objects that formed shortly after the big bang.
2. To investigate how galaxies form and develop.
3. To observe the formation of stars and planetary systems.
4. To look at the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems and investigate the potential for life in these systems.

James Webb was the second administrator of NASA, best known for heading up the Apollo program. Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe said of Webb, it’s “thanks to his efforts, we got our first glimpses at the dramatic landscape of outer space… He took our nation on its first voyages of exploration, turning our imagination into reality.”

Spin-Off Technologies

Systems integrator Northrop Grumman provides a breakdown of the spin-off technologies from the Webb Telescope:

Human Sight Benefits From Space Invention:  Improvements in wavefront technology let NASA accurately measure Webb’s mirrors during manufacturing. Those advancements have since transferred to medicine, where the technology is measuring human eyes, diagnosing ocular diseases, and potentially improving eye surgery. For example, doctors can now see more detailed information about the shape of an eye in seconds, rather than in hours.

Webb Technology Helped Hubble Camera Repair:  Developed for Webb, a technology known as application-specific integrated units (ASICs) ended up helping Hubble. ASICs are integrated circuits that enable an entire circuit board’s worth of electronics to be condensed into a tiny package. ASICs are programmable, which allowed NASA to fix Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, technology that has produced remarkable views of the universe.

Sensors Are Guiding the Work of Other Missions:  Infrared sensors developed for Webb’s instruments are now also the select technology for astronomical observations in space and on Earth. These sensors record the weak light from galaxies, stars, and planets. Several NASA missions have relied on an early version of Webb’s HAWAII-2RG 4 Megapixel array. Hubble, Deep, and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, for example, have all benefited from these sensors. Meanwhile, the HAWAII-2RG is in use at dozens of ground-based observatories around the world.

A “Cold” Invention Is a “Hot” Technology  Rocket science is famously known as being exactingly difficult, but sometimes it’s even harder than that. Webb engineers had a tough time finding a way to test the telescope’s mirrors and composite structures at the cold temperatures found in space. It’s not easy to generate -450 degrees Fahrenheit.  But a technology company in Arizona found a way by designing several types of high-speed test devices that use pulsed lasers to “freeze out” the effects of vibration. That invention led to the creation of other applications for astronomy, aerospace, and medicine.

Steadying the Telescope in the Coldness of Space:  The backplane of Webb supports the mirrors of the telescope. It will carry not only the primary mirror and telescope optics but also the entire module of scientific instruments, more than two tons of hardware. Northrop Grumman designed advanced graphite composite materials that are connected to titanium and invar fittings and interfaces, which will steady the backplane at 1/10,000 the diameter of a human hair while in temperatures colder than -400 degrees Fahrenheit.

To learn more about these technologies, download the Webb Spinoffs pdf.

Further Resources

The NASA Livestream from the launch:  James Webb Space Telescope Launch — Official NASA Broadcast – YouTube

Direct Link to Everyday Astronaut live stream:  Watch NASA & ESA launch the James Webb Space Telescope!!

A Prelaunch Preview:  https://everydayastronaut.com/james-w…

New Technology Innovations Webb Telescope/NASA

‘L2’ Will be the James Webb Space Telescope’s Home in Space

The Everyday Astronaut, Elon Musk and his five-step engineering process

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