The Vega-C rocket lifting off from its launch pad at the Kourou space base, French Guiana, December 21, 2022.Photo: JM Guillon (AP)
Arianespace’s medium-lift Vega-C rocket failed to reach orbit on its second mission, resulting in the destruction of the two satellites on board.
The rocket, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), built by Italian company Avio, and operated by Arianespace, took off on Tuesday at 8:47 p.m. ET from the Kourou space base in French Guiana, carrying the Neo 5 and Neo 6 satellites for for Airbus’ Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation.
The rocket’s first stage separated successfully from the second stage, but trouble ensued shortly thereafter. Around two minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage, called the Zefiro 40, experienced a catastrophic anomaly, Arianespace announced on Twitter.
“Following the nominal ignition of the second stage’s (Zefiro 40) engine around 144 seconds after lift-off, a decrease in the pressure was observed leading to the premature end of the mission,” Arianespace wrote in a statement.
“After this underpressure, we have observed the deviation of the trajectory and very strong anomalies, so unfortunately we can say that the mission is lost,” Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace, said on the launch webcast, as reported by SpaceNews. Per standard procedures, the rocket was ordered to self-destruct.
The satellites on board were meant to complete Airbus’ six-satellite constellation, providing high-resolution imagery of Earth.
Arianespace and ESA have appointed an independent inquiry commission to analyze the reason for the rocket’s failure and determine what needs to be done before Vega-C can resume flights, according to an Arianespace statement.
Vega-C was originally scheduled to launch on November 24, but the mission was delayed due to faulty equipment in the payload fairing separation system. The launch system hasn’t had the best track record, with the latest incident marking the third time a Vega rocket has suffered a mission failure in the last eight liftoffs, according to the BBC. In November 2020, a Vega rocket failed eight minutes into the mission, the result of human error.
More on this story: Vega Rocket Failure Apparently Caused by Human Error
It’s a disappointing follow-up to Vega-C’s debut this summer. On July 13, Vega-C successfully completed its inaugural flight, delivering the Italian Space Agency’s LARES-2 to orbit as its primary payload. Vega-C is a more powerful successor to the Vega launcher, which was in operation for 10 years. Vega-C is fitted with a more powerful first and second stage, along with an improved re-ignitable upper stage.
Tuesday’s mission marked the first time Vega-C carried a commercial payload, so it is unfortunate that the mission ended in failure. ESA is counting on Vega-C to deliver European payloads to orbit and maintain its presence in the growing space industry by virtue of possessing its own launch vehicle.
ESA is also getting ready to debut Ariane 6, the next-generation launcher to follow Ariane 5. Ariane 6 was originally slated for launch in 2020, but has suffered numerous delays, and is now scheduled to fly in 2023. “With Vega-C and Ariane 6, Europe will have a flexible, independent solution for a fast-changing launch market,” Daniel Neuenschwande, ESA’s director of Space Transportation, said in a statement in June.
Hopefully ESA can recover from the mission failure and get Vega-C back on track.
More: We Can’t Wait for These Futuristic Rockets to Finally Blast Off
Artist’s conception of SUSIE performing a vertical landing (video sped 2.5 times). Gif: ArianeGroup/Gizmodo
French aerospace company ArianeGroup has revealed a concept for a reusable upper stage spacecraft that would be capable of delivering heavy payloads to space and carry out crewed missions before landing vertically back on Earth.
SUSIE, short for Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration, was introduced to the world at the International Astronautical Congress held in Paris from September 18 to 22. The fully reusable upper stage could eventually serve as an automated freighter and payload transporter, as well as a spacecraft for crewed missions carrying a crew of up to five astronauts. SUSIE remains a concept for now, but if realized, the spacecraft would support various European space endeavours for years to come.
Reusability is fast becoming a necessity in modern spaceflight, as launch providers work to keep costs down. “It is our industrial duty to contribute to this ambition and offer European decision-makers smart and ambitious technological solutions capable of contributing to independent access to space, and also to open the door to European space exploration and address commercial and institutional needs for services in space over the coming decades,” Morena Bernardini, head of strategy and innovation at ArianeGroup, said in a statement.
Europe’s private space industry has fallen a bit behind its American counterparts in terms of developing reusable vehicles. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is a reusable two-stage rocket that has flown to space nearly 200 times, while the company’s reusable Dragon capsules, whether for cargo or crews, are now in steady circulation. Boeing’s Starliner, a reusable crew capsule, recently completed its first uncrewed end-to-end test flight (although it was a less-than-perfect mission). Reusable launchers and vehicles aren’t so much the future as they are the present.
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Artist’s conception of SUSIE shortly after detaching from the second stage. Screenshot: Ariane Group
SUSIE will initially launch onboard the company’s heavy-lift Ariane 6 vehicle, which is scheduled for its inaugural flight in 2023. The large upper stage could be used to transport all sorts of payloads to orbit and even assist in the orbital construction of large infrastructure, such as space stations. For its return trip home, the spacecraft could be packed with upwards of 14,000 pounds (7 tons) of cargo and supplies.
“Missions made possible by SUSIE include towing, inspecting and upgrading satellites and other payloads, and supplying fuel, food, and equipment to space stations. It will also be able to carry out crew changeovers and facilitate human in-orbit activities,” ArianeGroup claimed in its statement. “It will also help reduce orbital debris and assist with removing or deorbiting end-of-life satellites.” SUSIE is meant to be entirely reusable and is designed to make a soft, vertical landing back on Earth. The upper stage would also be equipped with an abort safety system that covers the entire mission from liftoff to landing.
Aside from SUSIE, ArianeGroup is designing new heavy-lift reusable launchers as part of a proposal for the European Space Agency (ESA) for its NESTS (New European Space Transportation Solutions) initiative. The heavy-lift launchers could later be used to carry SUSIE to orbit. Europe may be late to the game, but it’s planning a solid entry into the business of reusable space vehicles.
More: Arianespace Reaches Deal With OneWeb, Setting Stage for Resumption of Suspended Launches
Enlarge / The Ariane 5 rocket, with the James Webb Space Telescope, at its launch site in French Guiana.
ESA/S. Corvaja
There were two stunningly good pieces of news about the James Webb Space Telescope this weekend. One was widely reported—that after an intricate, two-week process, the telescope completed its deployment without any difficulties. The next steps toward science operations are more conventional.
The other piece of news, less well-covered but still important, emerged during a news conference on Saturday. NASA’s Mission Systems Engineer for the Webb telescope, Mike Menzel, said the agency had completed its analysis of how much “extra” fuel remained on board the telescope. Roughly speaking, Menzel said, Webb has enough propellant on board for 20 years of life.
This is twice the conservative pre-launch estimate for Webb’s lifetime of a decade, and it largely comes down to the performance of the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on a precise trajectory on Christmas Day.
Prior to launch, the telescope was fueled with 240 liters of hydrazine fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. Some of this fuel was needed for course adjustments along the journey to a stable point in space, about 1.5 million km from Earth, where Webb will conduct science observations. The remainder will be used at Webb’s final orbit around the stable Lagrange point for station-keeping and to maintain its orbit.
So every kilogram of fuel saved on Webb’s journey to the Lagrange point could be used to extend its life there. Because ten years seemed like a fairly short operational period for such an expensive and capable space telescope, NASA had already been contemplating a costly and risky robotic refueling mission. But now that should not be necessary, as Webb has at least two decades of life.
A lot of this comes down to the performance of the venerable Ariane 5 rocket. NASA and the European Space Agency reached an agreement more than a decade ago by which Europe would use its reliable Ariane 5 rocket to lift the telescope into space, and in exchange, European scientists would get time to use the telescope.
During an interview with The Interplanetary Podcast, Ariane 5 program manager Rudiger Albat explained how European rocket scientists approached the Webb launch. Each Ariane 5 vehicle is interchangeable, but engineers and technicians involved in the production of the rocket know which components are going on which rocket. So when they were building a part of Webb, an engineer might say, “I’ll take a second look” to make sure the piece was the best it could be.
The Ariane 5 program also selected the best components for Webb, based upon pre-flight testing. For example, for the Webb-designated rocket, the program used a main engine that had been especially precise during testing. “It was one of the best Vulcain engines that we’ve ever built,” Albat said. “It has very precise performance. It would have been criminal not to do it.”
A similar attitude was taken toward other components, including the solid rocket motors that were used to build the Ariane 5 that launched two weeks ago.
Albat admitted that the days prior to launch were exhausting and nerve-wracking. But soon after the launch, Albat said he and the entire European space community could take pride as Webb took flight and began to unfurl its wings. Now, he said, “I feel totally relaxed.” The same can be said for a lot of scientists who have been watching Webb’s development for two decades.
Conceptual image of a Starship launch involving both stages of the reusable system.Image: SpaceX
Humanity’s reach into space has never been greater, with 2022 promising to be one of the most thrilling yet. Here are the space stories we’ll be watching in the coming months.
The inaugural flight of NASA’s Space Launch System
One of the most anticipated events of the year happens next spring, or so we hope. NASA will attempt the inaugural launch of its 332-foot-tall (101 meters) SLS rocket, effectively kickstarting the Artemis era. It’ll be an impressive sight, as the rocket will exert 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—15% more than NASA’s Saturn V rocket. For this, the Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft will travel 280,000 miles (450,000 km) to lunar orbit and promptly return to Earth.
Conceptual image showing an SLS launch. Image: NASA
Launch windows for Artemis one occur in mid-March and mid-April. A successful launch of SLS will set the stage for Artemis 2 (scheduled for 2023), in which a crewed Orion capsule will travel around the Moon and back (basically a repeat of Artemis 1, but with astronauts), and Artemis 3 (scheduled for no earlier than 2025), in which NASA astronauts will land on the Moon for the first time since 1972.
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The inaugural orbital flight of SpaceX’s Starship
SpaceX will also attempt the launch of an oversized rocket, likely in either January or February. The reusable Starship megarocket will consist of the Super Heavy Booster 4 and Starship prototype SN20, which, at a combined 394 feet (120 meters) in height, will be the tallest rocket ever built. Launching from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, the rocket will enter Earth orbit but complete less than full rotation of the planet. The booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the second stage will splash down in the Pacific near Hawaii.
The stacking of a Starship upper stage onto a Super Heavy. Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said there’s “a lot of risk associated with this first launch,” and he’s candidly predicting a failure. That said, he believes a Starship rocket will reach orbit in 2022 and that upwards of 12 Starship launches could take place over the course of the year. Progress will be important, as SpaceX is developing the rocket to serve as the landing craft for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions on the Moon.
Other rockets expected to make their maiden flights in 2022 include Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, and Mitsubishi’s H3.
The second uncrewed test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner
Artist’s concept of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner in Earth orbit. Image: NASA/Boeing
Speaking of pressure, all eyes will be on Boeing to see if the beleaguered company will finally make progress with its CST-100 Starliner. Boeing is developing the capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, but it’s now years behind schedule. A major setback occurred in October 2021, when Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) had to be scrubbed after 13 of 24 oxidizer valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system failed to open. The inaugural test of Starliner in 2019 was a total mess, making this latest incident all the more embarrassing. Boeing is now seeking to launch Starliner in May 2022, “pending spacecraft readiness and space station availability,” according to NASA.
A helicopter will attempt to catch a falling rocket booster
Photo of the rocket retrieval test done in April 2020. Image: Rocket Lab
In 2022, aerospace manufacturer Rocket Lab will attempt to catch a falling Electron rocket booster mid-air and then return it to the mainland for reuse (Rocket Lab performed a successful test of this idea in April 2020). A parachute system will slow the booster during its descent, while a special engagement line on the helicopter will enable it to capture and secure the booster. An auxiliary fuel tank will be added to the helicopter, allowing for an extended journey. Rocket Lab expects to perform this daring catch during the first half of 2022.
To the Moon!!
No humans will reach the Moon in 2022, but the same cannot be said for landers and robots, with the United States, Russia, India, and Japan all preparing for lunar missions in the coming year.
Conceptual image of the Peregrine lander. Image: NASA
Pittsburgh-based Astrobiotic is planning to send its Peregrine Lunar Lander to the Moon at some point in 2022. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which the space agency contracts with commercial partners. The lander, equipped with 14 payloads of various types, will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Centaur rocket.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines, another CLPS partner, is currently planning to send its Nova-C lander to the Moon, which it expects to do during the first half of the year with the lift coming from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Nova-C will deliver 220 pounds (100 kg) worth of goods to the lunar surface.
In July 2019, India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission failed to safely deliver the Vikram lander to the lunar surface. The Indian Space Research Organization will try again during the third quarter of 2022 in what will hopefully be a successful sequel—the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Should India pull it off, it’ll become just the fourth country to successfully land a probe on the Moon (the others being the United States, Russia, and China).
In July 2022, Russia will be sending its Luna 25 lander, also known as the Luna-Glob-Lander, to the southern polar region of the Moon. The purpose of the mission is to analyze the “composition of the polar regolith, and to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere,” according to NASA.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) will be Japan’s first mission to the Moon. The purpose of SLIM is to test precision lunar landing capabilities, such as avoiding craters and selecting optimal locations for touchdown. The probe, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is expected to launch at some point in 2022 and land near the Marius Hills Hole—a lunar lava tube entrance.
Another rover for the Red Planet
The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover, along with Russia’s Kazachok lander, is scheduled to launch on September 29. Once at Mars, the Rosalind Franklin will collect surface samples and crush them into a fine powder. Its onboard laboratory will then perform detailed chemical, spectral, and physical analyses. The rover’s navigational capabilities should allow it to travel around 328 feet (100 meters) every Martian day, or sol.
Conceptual image of the Rosalind Franklin rover. Image: ESA
Meanwhile, we can expect new insights from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers (and perhaps more flights of the Ingenuity helicopter), and also China’s Zhurong rover. NASA’s InSight mission will continue to operate in 2022, but this is likely to be its final year, as the stationary lander is struggling to collect solar power.
Space probes probing space
In August, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will attempt to deliver NASA’s Psyche probe to space. Its destination is 16 Psyche—a metallic asteroid containing copious amounts of nickel-iron. The asteroid “offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets,” according to NASA. The mission could shed new light on the composition and age of Psyche’s surface, and the conditions under which it formed. Data from the probe will also be used to create a detailed map of the asteroid’s surface. The Psyche probe is expected to reach the asteroid in January 2026.
Conceptual image of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. Illustration: NASA
The same launch of the Falcon Heavy will deliver two smallsats for NASA, but they’re headed elsewhere. Known as the Janus project, the dual spacecraft will explore two binary asteroids, (175706) 1996 FG3 and (35107) 1991 VH. Daniel Scheeres, the principal investigator of the project and an astronomer at the University of Colorado, says binary asteroids “are one class of objects for which we don’t have high-resolution scientific data,” as all existing observations come from ground telescopes, “which don’t give you as much detail as being up close.” Janus, in addition to furthering our understanding of the early solar system, could also inform planetary defense measures. It’ll take four years for the probes to reach their destinations.
Conceptual images of the Janus dual-spacecraft. Image: Lockheed Martin
Probes already launched to space will continue to do their work. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will perform a close fly-by of Jupiter’s moon Europa on September 29, after which time its orbital period around the gas giant will be reduced from 43 to 38 days. The Parker Solar Probe, also managed by NASA, will perform four flybys of the Sun in 2022, as it gets increasingly closer to our host star.
In addition, the $10 billion Webb Space Telescope, set to launch on Christmas Day 2021, will travel to its special spot in space—Lagrange Point 2 (an area of space where gravity from the Sun and Earth balance the orbital motion of an object). Once at L2, and after Webb’s instruments are successfully deployed, we’ll finally get to see Webb’s first view of the cosmos.
Astronomical happenings
No total solar eclipse will happen in 2022, but there will be two partial solar eclipses. The first happens on April 30, when the partial eclipse will be visible from the southern portions of South America, and the second will occur on October 25 and be visible to skywatchers in Europe and parts of northern Africa (weather permitting, of course).
A partial lunar eclipse on May 15/16 will be visible in parts of North America and all of South America, while a partial lunar eclipse on November 7/8 will appear primarily over the Pacific Ocean, with western parts of North America and eastern Asia also catching a glimpse.
So buckle up and grab some kool-aid—looks like we’ve got another amazing year in space ahead.
Conceptual image showing the launch of the Webb telescope, with the fairing falling away. Image: ESA/D. Ducros
The Webb Space Telescope, after years of delays, has finally reached the launch pad. It’s a momentous occasion, but the observatory still needs to go through a complex and unprecedented commissioning process that will require a nerve-wracking six months to complete. The hard part, it would seem, is still to come.
Developed by the American, European, and Canadian space agencies, and with help from private contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Webb has been described as the “most complex and powerful telescope ever built.” With its infrared capabilities, Webb will hunt for ancient stars and galaxies, study the formation of stars and exoplanets, and search for life in the Milky Way. The space telescope has the potential to literally and figuratively transform our view of the cosmos and our understanding of our place in it.
Excitement for this mission is accentuated by the fact that Webb was supposed to go up in 2007, but a major redesign having to do with its sunshield, cost overruns that nearly doubled the original quote, ongoing technical hurdles, extensive testing, issues with the chosen launch vehicle—pauses to catch breath—the covid-19 pandemic, and problems during processing at the Guiana Space Center all conspired to create the current launch date of December 25, 2021 (liftoff is currently scheduled for between 7:20 and 7:52 a.m. EST on Christmas Day).
Broad overview of the six-month commissioning phase. Graphic: NASA
The heavy lifting, so to speak, seems to be behind us, but plenty of steps remain before Webb can be declared fully operational. Now, I can’t possibly account for everything that could possibly go wrong from now until then, but I can go over some key stages, and even some technological gadgetry, that could create problems over the next six months.
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Before we get to that, however, I want to talk about the Ariane 5 rocket that will take Webb to space. The Arianespace rocket is super reliable, but a prior technical issue is making me a little nervous about the upcoming launch. On two separate occasions in 2020, the Ariane 5 rocket experienced unexpected vehicle accelerations during fairing separation. Arianespace has since corrected the issue, and everything seems good to go, but I don’t love that this happened. This will make me a little extra nervous on Christmas morning as I sip on my eggnog and watch the launch.
A catastrophic rocket failure notwithstanding (heaven forbid), the launch could produce damaging vibrations. That said, Webb is specifically designed to tolerate the expected shaking. Back in 2016, vibrations testing revealed a problem with the tie-downs, or “launch restraint mechanisms,” that will hold the telescope’s mirror wings. The many acoustic and vibration tests done on the 14,300-pound instrument should have ruled this out, among other potential problems, but we won’t know until Webb finally gets to space.
As Alison Nordt, Lockheed Martin space science and instrumentation director, explained in an email, Webb doesn’t just have to survive launch—it also needs to survive its rude introduction to space.
“I am of course very excited for the JWST launch, and the stakes are definitely high,” said Nordt. “The space environment, including launch, presents many differences from the ground—things like launch loads (vibration and acoustics), vacuum (lack of air), temperature extremes (especially for Webb going to about -400°F), and weightlessness,” which can’t necessarily be tested on the ground.
The launch sequence itself should be a routine affair, with the Ariane’s side boosters falling away a few minutes after blast off, followed by the jettisoning of the payload fairing. The rocket’s lower stage will continue to provide the needed thrust, but once out of fuel it too will need to fall away, allowing the upper stage to take over. The spacecraft must then perform a series of oscillation maneuvers to prevent solar radiation from blasting a single side of the now-exposed telescope. The upper stage will be jettisoned around 27 minutes after launch, at which time Webb will be independent and under its own power.
Launches always involve an element of risk, but in this case, it’s all the stuff that will happen next that could create the biggest problems. With more folds than an origami paper sculpture, the space telescope must open up, give out a metaphorical yawn, and unfurl its many components.
The spacecraft will deploy its solar panels around 33 minutes into the mission “so that Webb can start making electricity from sunshine and stop draining its battery,” as NASA writes in the Webb FAQ. “Webb will quickly establish its ability to orient itself and ‘fly’ in space.” Webb’s high gain antenna will be deployed at this time as well, in order to “enable the highest available rates of data communication as early as practical,” according to NASA.
Graphic showing Webb’s location in the second Lagrange point (not to scale). Graphic: NASA
Deploying the solar arrays will be a time-sensitive affair, but so too will be the first trajectory correction. Unlike Hubble, which works in low Earth orbit, Webb will conduct its business in the second Lagrange point, or L2. This sweet spot, situated between Earth and the Sun, is highly stable, which means Webb won’t have to use an excessive amount of fuel to stay in position. L2 is located around 1 million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth, so it will take Webb a full month to get there, during which time the spacecraft will need to make some course corrections. The first, known as MCC-1a, will happen some 12.5 hours into the mission.
Webb’s first day in space sounds intense, but the following weeks and months will likewise involve some very important steps, any one of which could jeopardize the mission, as SpaceNews explains:
Those initial deployments, though, are among the most critical, and the riskiest. At a November briefing, Mike Menzel, JWST lead mission systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said there are 344 single-point failures in the spacecraft, 80% of which are associated with deployment mechanisms. “When you have a release mechanism, it’s hard to put full redundancy into that,” he said.
The sunshield, for example, includes 140 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assemblies, eight deployment motors, about 400 pulleys and 90 cables that are a total of 400 meters long, said Krystal Puga, JWST spacecraft systems engineer at Northrop Grumman, during that November briefing.
The process of deploying the telescope’s five-layer sunshield will begin three days after launch. Being an infrared telescope, Webb needs this shield to minimize potential interference; the telescope is designed to detect sources of heat, so the last thing scientists need is to be picking up heat coming off its own instruments. In the week following launch, “the most critical operations will be all the sunshield deployments and tensioning of the layers,” Nordt told Gizmodo. “The sunshield deployment is causing the most discussion in part because it was the hardest system to test-like-you-fly.” Other deployments, like the rolling out of Webb’s radiators, will take place at the same time.
By week two, the team should be wrapping up the deployments, including the unfolding and latching of the secondary mirror tripod, the rotating and latching of the two primary mirror wings, and the unlocking of the primary mirror segments. Full deployment of the telescope should be completed around 13 days into the mission. The effects of the sunshade should start to become apparent around this time, with the scientific instruments undergoing rapid cooling.
“The Webb team has done everything they possibly could to test everything to ensure success, and I know we will all breathe a bit easier once all the deployments are complete and we can move on to alignments,” said Nordt.
Webb’s four science instruments. Graphic: NASA
The end of the first month will involve one final course correction (on day 29) and the insertion of Webb into its L2 orbit. Excitingly, controllers will then power up the observatory’s four scientific instruments: the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS-NIRISS).
“Once all those deployments are complete, the next step in commissioning is the one I am personally most excited for: turning on the NIRCam to start the meticulous process of aligning the 18 primary mirror segments,” said Nordt.
To start this process of fine-tuning the mirrors, “126 extremely precise actuators on the backside of the mirrors will position and subtly bend or flex each mirror into a specific prescription, a process that will take months,” NASA says. NIRCam can sense distortions in incoming light with great precision, said Nordt, and this data will allow the team in control of the individual mirror segments to “translate, rotate and change their curvature accordingly.” By the end of this alignment process, the 18 individual segments will serve as a single primary mirror. “So as you can imagine, those measurements from NIRCam have to be exactly correct in order for all this to work,” Nordt explained.
These initial optics checkouts and telescope alignments will happen during months two through four. Months five and six will involve final calibrations and the completion of the commissioning process. Webb will conduct observations of representative targets to help with the calibrations, and early demonstrations will test the observatory’s ability to track objects such as asteroids, comets, and moons. The team will then prepare a preliminary report, the Early Release Observations, to showcase the telescope’s abilities. Only after this is done will the official science operations phase begin.
Webb should remain functional for a minimum of five years, but the expectation is that it will work for at least 10 and possibly 12. Over those years, the telescope will have to perform slight engine bursts to keep it in L2, but the fuel required for these adjustments will eventually run out, after which time the telescope will just drift away, effectively ending the science stage of the mission.
With no feasible way to repair the telescope should something go wrong, and potentially 10 years of scientific breakthroughs in the balance, we’ll be on the edge of our seats this Christmas morning. The next decade will be a busy one for Webb and the many astronomers planning to use it. For all this to happen however, the stars, it would seem, will need to come into perfect alignment.
The Webb space telescope being hoisted to the top of an Ariane 5 rocket. Photo: ESA/M. Pedoussaut
Another day, another problem with the Webb Space Telescope. The new delay has to do with a communications issue, which we can only hope is not serious.
NASA’s latest update to the Webb launch situation was clear, concise, and grammatically incorrect. “The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system,” the space agency posted to its Webb telescope blog. “This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24. We will provide more information about the new launch date no later than Friday, Dec. 17.”
That’s a delay of two days, as the highly anticipated (and anxiety-provoking) space observatory had been scheduled for launch on December 22. A two-day delay doesn’t sound serious, but because no further details were given, it’s hard to know.
In November, a processing incident at a satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, caused a vibration to course through the entire $10 billion telescope, resulting in a four-day delay. The incident happened as Arianespace technicians were preparing to mount Webb to the launch vehicle adapter. A NASA-led investigation found no lingering issues and declared the observatory “ready for flight.”
Good progress has been made since then. The telescope has been fueled up, transported to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, and placed atop the Ariane 5 rocket that will take it to space. As the Webb blog noted on December 14, the telescope “was slowly hoisted nearly 130 feet [40 meters] and then perfectly aligned on top of the Ariane 5, after which technicians bolted Webb’s launch vehicle adapter down to the rocket.”
A successor to the still-active-but-struggling Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will use its infrared capabilities to study distant planets, stars, and some of the most ancient galaxies in the universe.
The incident with the vibration and now the communications issue are just two of many problems to afflict the project over the years. Webb, a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, was supposed to launch years ago, but ongoing technical challenges, the covid-19 pandemic, and other issues have resulted in a seemingly endless succession of delays.
The current year alone has seen multiple delays, as the observatory was supposed to launch in March, October, and November—including October 31. I suppose the new target date of Christmas Eve is far less ominous than a Halloween launch.
A processing incident that caused the entire Webb Space Telescope to shake did not cause any perceptible damage to the observatory, a NASA-led investigation has concluded.
“Engineering teams have completed additional testing confirming NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is ready for flight,” as NASA explained in a statement.
That’s a huge relief. This means launch preparations can continue as planned, with blast off now scheduled for Wednesday December 22 at 7:20 a.m. ET (4:30 a.m. PT). Launch of the next-gen space telescope was originally scheduled for December 18, but a scary mounting incident at a satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, resulted in a four day delay. Private contractor Arianespace is managing the launch for NASA.
Conceptual image showing the Webb Space Telescope during launch. Image: ESA/D. Ducros
The incident happened while technicians were preparing to mount the telescope to the launch vehicle adapter—the physical structure that connects Webb to the Ariane 5 rocket’s upper stage. While this was happening, a “sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory,” according to NASA.
The event was troubling enough that NASA decided to convene an anomaly review board to determine if Webb incurred any damage as a result of the shaking. Engineering teams completed their tests on November 24, finding nothing wrong with the observatory. This allowed for a “consent to fuel session,” during which NASA gave its approval. The fuelling of the observatory is scheduled to begin on November 25, in a process that’s expected to take around 10 days.
The Webb Space Telescope is an international project involving NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency. As the most complex and powerful space telescope ever built, Webb will make unprecedented observations of the solar system, Milky Way, and the universe. The project has been marred by numerous delays and cost overruns, but it appears that Webb is finally on track to make its much-anticipated exit from Earth–at least until the next bad thing happens.
More: New Curiosity Image Reminds Us That Mars Is a Truly Beautiful Place.
The Webb telescope in the cleanroom at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, October 15, 2021. Photo: NASA/Chris Gunn
A processing anomaly has caused an unexpected vibration to course through the entire Webb telescope just weeks before launch. An investigation is now underway to determine if the incident somehow damaged the observatory.
Honestly, nothing surprises me anymore about the Webb Space Telescope, but this latest incident is total cringe. After decades of planning, years of delays, and painstaking work to make sure this $10 billion observatory will work as intended, there’s been some kind of mishap. It may turn out to be nothing, but this last-minute snafu certainly seems on-brand for the beleaguered project.
Webb was supposed to launch on December 18, but that’s not going to happen. The space telescope is currently at a satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, where Arianespace is preparing the instrument for launch aboard its Ariane 5 rocket. Ariane technicians were getting ready to mount the telescope to the launch vehicle adapter when a “sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory,” according to NASA.
A vibration throughout the observatory.
Oof. Like, not a vibration tied to a single component, or a vibration limited to a certain section. No—a vibration throughout the observatory. Sounds like they rang this thing like a bell, though to be fair we don’t yet know the full severity of the shaking.
We also don’t know the timing of the incident, but it likely happened very recently. An anomaly review board led by NASA has prompted testing to make sure the incident didn’t damage any of Webb’s components. NASA says it will provide an update by the end of this week.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA, was asked about the incident at a press conference held yesterday to discuss the upcoming DART asteroid mission. Webb, being close to launch, is no longer equipped with sensors that were used while the spacecraft was being transported to French Guiana, he said, so without these sensors, the team is having to run calculations to estimate the amount of force endured by the telescope during the incident. Functional tests are being done on a “small number of subsystems” to “be sure that nothing happened,” Zurbuchen added.
Launch of Webb will now happen no earlier than December 22—a minimum delay of four days. Of course, that assumes a happy result from the ongoing investigation. Once in space, Webb will use infrared to observe the atmospheres of distant exoplanets, study stars, and discover ancient galaxies that emerged shortly after the Big Bang.
Hard to believe, but Webb was originally supposed to launch in 2007. Ongoing development challenges, the covid-19 pandemic, and problems with Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket have resulted in a seemingly endless succession of delays. The telescope was supposed to launch in 2014, 2018, 2019, and then 2020, and the current year has already seen several delays (it was supposed to go up in March, October, and November). Adding insult to injury, the Webb telescope has been heavily criticized for bearing the name of a NASA administrator who was involved in the widespread persecution of LGBTQ government employees during the “lavender scare” of the mid-20th century.
Related: Extremely Delayed James Webb Space Telescope Delayed Again, Again.
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An Ariane 5 rocket on its launch pad Thursday in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/JM Guillon
Arianespace is counting down to the blastoff of an Ariane 5 rocket Saturday night from French Guiana, the final flight of Europe’s workhorse launcher before NASA and the European Space Agency entrust it to launch the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope.
Leaders from both agencies will be carefully watching the outcome of Saturday night’s mission with the commercial SES 17 satellite and the French military’s Syracuse 4A payload. The mission is the 111th flight of an Ariane 5 rocket since its debut in 1996.
NASA engineers helped ESA and Arianespace, the Ariane 5’s commercial operator, assess the rocket’s readiness to launch Webb, the most expensive robotic space mission in history. The launch Saturday is the final test before Webb is mounted to the next Ariane 5 for a liftoff scheduled for Dec. 18.
The Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center, which provides oversight for launches carrying NASA science missions to space, took on a consulting role for the James Webb Space Space Telescope.
“I think that helps calm some folks’ feelings, or perhaps perceptions, of why in the world are we launching this on a foreign vehicle,” said Omar Baez, a launch director at Kennedy, in a recent interview with Spaceflight Now.
The Ariane 5 is one of the most reliable launch vehicles in the world, with just one partial failure in its last 96 missions. The European Space Agency is paying for Webb’s launch as part of its contribution to the mission. NASA paid the bulk of Webb’s development costs, and the Canadian Space Agency is the third partner on the mission.
Baez said he took his first trip to the Ariane 5 launch base in Kourou, French Guiana, two decades ago to start evaluating facilities at the spaceport, which is managed by CNES, the French space agency.
“It’s touchy because you’re going up against Arianespace and CNES, and you’re a foreign agent, but we have worked well together,” Baez said.
He said NASA assigned experts in spacecraft processing, mission integration, and risk management as consultants to work with ESA and Arianespace ahead of Webb’s launch.
The James Webb Space Telescope arrived at the Guiana Space Center on Oct. 12 after shipment from a Northrop Grumman facility in Southern California. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Piron
“Our risk manager has been following how the French and ESA folks bubble up any problems that Arianespace may have, and it’s very similar to the system we have here, with regard to insight and oversight by government agencies,” Baez said. “So we take credit for some of that insight by seeing that they have the same type of rigor that we show when we fly one of our precious payloads.”
The Ariane 5 rocket set to take off with SES 17 and Syracuse 4A rolled out to the ELA-3 launch pad Thursday at the Guiana Space Center in preparation for a launch attempt Friday night. But officials with Arianespace delayed the flight 24 hours to conduct additional checks on unspecified ground systems.
The launch window Saturday opens at 9:01 p.m. EDT (10:01 p.m. French Guiana time; 0101 GMT Sunday) and extends for 2 hours, 29 minutes. Fitted with two strap-on solid rocket boosters on each side of its hydrogen-fueled core stage, the Ariane 5 will launch two European-built communications satellites into an elongated geostationary transfer orbit.
In their analyses to ensure the Ariane 5 is ready to launch Webb, engineers in Europe and the United States have focused on the rocket’s Swiss-made payload fairing, or nose cone, which protects payloads during the first few minutes of flight through the atmosphere. The shroud jettisons in two pieces a few minutes after launch, exposing satellites for separation from the rocket once in orbit.
The Ariane 5 rocket’s payload fairing is seen before rollout with the SES 17 and Syracuse 4A satellites. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Baudon
JWST will fold up origami-style to fit under the Ariane 5 rocket’s payload shroud, then unfurl solar panels, antennas, a segmented mirror array, and a thermal sunshield the size of a tennis court after separating from the Ariane 5 on the way to an observing post nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
Once in position, JWST’s telescope — the largest ever flown in space — and four science instruments will peer into the distant universe, studying the turbulent aftermath of the Big Bang, the formation of galaxies and the environments of planets around other stars.
The Ariane 5 payload shroud is made by RUAG Space in Switzerland.
Engineers introduced modifications to the Ariane 5’s payload fairing to reduce vibrations imparted on the satellites during separation of the nose cone.
ESA, Arianespace and RUAG also changed the design of vents on the Ariane 5’s payload shroud to address a concern that a depressurization event could damage the Webb observatory when the fairing jettisons after liftoff. Engineers were concerned residual air trapped in Webb’s folded sunshield membranes could cause an “over-stress condition” at the time of fairing separation.
Baez said NASA engineers based at Kennedy Space Center were “very instrumental” in discovering an issue with how the Ariane 5 fairing depressurizes during ascent.
“We were able to, in cooperation with our French partners, instrument the fairing on previous flights that captured that environment and make sure that we had accurate information,” Baez said. “And, in fact, we did find a problem. We had to work on a scheme to be able to vent that fairing properly on its ascent.”
The SES 17 satellite during integration and testing at Thales Alenia Space’s factory in Cannes, France. Credit: Marie-Ange Sanguy / Thales Alenia Space
Built Thales Alenia Space, the SES 17 communications satellite will provide internet connectivity to airline passengers over the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean for SES of Luxembourg. The fully fueled satellite weighs 14,133 pounds (6,411 kilograms), according to Arianespace’s launch press kit.
SES 17 is the largest satellite ever procured by SES, and the largest spacecraft ever built by Thales. It carries a new digital payload controller, developed in a public-private partnership with ESA, that is capable of re-programming the satellites’s nearly 200 spot beams, adjusting power and frequency allocations to respond to changing customer needs.
The 8,492-pound (3,852-kilogram) Syracuse 4A spacecraft, also built by Thales Alenia Space, will provide communications services for the French military. The satellite will relay secure communications between French military aircraft, ground vehicles, and naval vessels, including submarines.
SES 17 is stacked in the upper position side the Ariane 5 payload fairing, and will separate from the rocket first at T+plus 29 minutes, 35 seconds. After jettison of a Sylda payload adapter, the Ariane 5’s cryogenic upper stage will maneuver to release Syracuse 4A at T+plus 38 minutes, 41 seconds.
The launch Saturday night will be the 111th flight of an Ariane 5 rocket, one of the most powerful operational launchers in the world. The Ariane 5 also has one of the largest payload fairings of any rocket, with a standard height of nearly 56 feet (17 meters) and a diameter of 17.7 feet (5.4 meters).
On Saturday night’s mission, the fairing’s position on the launcher is raised by 5 feet (1.5 meters) by the addition of a spacer section where the shroud connects to the Ariane 5’s upper stage. The change gives the rocket a total height of 184 feet (56.3 meters), making it the tallest Ariane 5 to ever fly.
The combined weight of the SES 17 and Syracuse 4A satellites is 22,626 pounds (10,263 kilograms). It’s the heaviest payload stack ever to be launched into geostationary transfer orbit, a typical drop-off orbit for geosynchronous communications satellites heading to an altitude of more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.
The SES 17 and Syracuse 4A satellites will use their own engines to reach their final operating orbits.
