James Webb Space Telescope: NASA's new eye on the universe
Power Player of the Week: John Durning, deputy project manager for the James Webb Space Telescope Project
The James Webb Space Telescope arrived at its observation point on Monday afternoon.
In a blog post, NASA said that the $10 billion observatory fired its rocket thrusters for nearly five minutes to complete the final postlaunch course correction to Webb’s trajectory.
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"This mid-course correction burn inserted Webb toward its final orbit around the second sun-Earth Lagrange point, or L2, nearly 1 million miles away from the Earth," the agency said.
The final mid-course burn added a walking pace to Webb's speed – the push that was needed to send it to its preferred "halo" orbit around the L2 point.
The 7-ton spacecraft will loop around the second Lagrange point – where the gravitational forces of the sun and Earth balance each other – whilst circling the sun and always facing Earth's right side to keep infrared detectors as cold as possible.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the Webb team for the accomplishment.
"Webb, welcome home!" he said in a statement. "Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb’s safe arrival at L2 today. We’re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can’t wait to see Webb’s first new views of the universe this summer!"
The mirrors on the telescope, which was launched from French Guiana on Christmas, still need to be aligned to "nearly nanometer precision" and scientific observations are not slated to begin until this summer.
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NASA said its orbit will both allow a wide view of the cosmos and the opportunity for the telescope optics and scientific instruments to get cold enough to function and perform optimal science.
"Webb has used as little propellant as possible for course corrections while it travels out to the realm of L2, to leave as much remaining propellant as possible for Webb’s ordinary operations over its lifetime: station-keeping (small adjustments to keep Webb in its desired orbit) and momentum unloading (to counteract the effects of solar radiation pressure on the huge sunshield)," the blog continued.
The instrument's gold-coated primary mirror, with 18 hexagonal segments, has already unfolded.
Webb is expected to operate for well over a decade, looking back in time 13.7 billion years and scanning the atmospheres of other worlds for possible signs of alien life.
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Webb, a joint venture with the European and Canadian space agencies, is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
However, unlike Hubble, it is too far away for emergency repairs.