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Here is the news from 2016: After 20 Years, NASA Finally Finished Building The James Webb Space Telescope Now it's ready for the final tests before launch in 2

Here is the news from 2016: After 20 Years, NASA Finally Finished Building The James Webb Space Telescope Now it's ready for the final tests before launch in 2018 https://www.popsci.com/james-webb-space-telescope-is-now-ready-for-final-tests-before-launch/ https://www.popsci.com/james-webb-space-telescope-is-now-rea...

WWLink 5y ago
Not knowing the actual team, but being familiar with space projects, the satellite probably didn't start getting built in earnest until the MCDR in 2010. Most of these kind of projects start off as a spitballing study and then grow and grow and grow into a flight program. That is the time period being cited as starting in the 90s. It's expensive as hell, and took a while to build - but I think, considering what it is, the schedule isn't all that crazy. The price is a bit insane... but it's also like, wonder of the world level of engineering. Building something like this is akin to making the tower of babel, and then placing that on top of a rocket and sending it almost a million miles away in L2 orbit. We could argue that a constellation of smaller and cheaper satellites would have probably been better - honestly I don't know much of anything about space optics so I'm not sure if that's really the case lol. I think it's a pretty amazing project and can't wait to see the results!
- throw0101a 5y ago
  > The price is a bit insane... but it's also like, wonder of the world level of engineering So is the price of a bespoke suit. It's not like you can go down to Sal's Satellite Symposium and pick one of these things off the rack like Levi 501 jeans (or picking up a Toyota RAV4). Most of these types of things are more handmade than even (e.g.) Ferraris, which at least have a production run of a few hundred or thousand cars for any given model. The closest things for 'production run' of satellites would be GPS, which are ordered in batches: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks#Block_III_satellites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks#Block_III...
  - GoOnThenDoTell 5y ago
    Starlink has a production line
- prox 5y ago
  Now that they’ve done it once, would building a second copy easier? (And less costly?)

WWLink 5y ago

Not knowing the actual team, but being familiar with space projects, the satellite probably didn't start getting built in earnest until the MCDR in 2010. Most of these kind of projects start off as a spitballing study and then grow and grow and grow into a flight program. That is the time period being cited as starting in the 90s. It's expensive as hell, and took a while to build - but I think, considering what it is, the schedule isn't all that crazy. The price is a bit insane... but it's also like, wonder of the world level of engineering. Building something like this is akin to making the tower of babel, and then placing that on top of a rocket and sending it almost a million miles away in L2 orbit. We could argue that a constellation of smaller and cheaper satellites would have probably been better - honestly I don't know much of anything about space optics so I'm not sure if that's really the case lol. I think it's a pretty amazing project and can't wait to see the results!

throw0101a 5y ago
> The price is a bit insane... but it's also like, wonder of the world level of engineering So is the price of a bespoke suit. It's not like you can go down to Sal's Satellite Symposium and pick one of these things off the rack like Levi 501 jeans (or picking up a Toyota RAV4). Most of these types of things are more handmade than even (e.g.) Ferraris, which at least have a production run of a few hundred or thousand cars for any given model. The closest things for 'production run' of satellites would be GPS, which are ordered in batches: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks#Block_III_satellites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks#Block_III...
- GoOnThenDoTell 5y ago
  Starlink has a production line
prox 5y ago
Now that they’ve done it once, would building a second copy easier? (And less costly?)