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Quite a few of my NASA colleagues worked today to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, and I'm sure most of them didn't mind working on Christmas. And I cert
by rootbear 5y ago
Quite a few of my NASA colleagues worked today to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, and I'm sure most of them didn't mind working on Christmas.
And I certainly appreciate all of those who work on the holidays to keep us safe.
- ivve 5y agoI was wondering this today: why did they launch on Christmas? Were there conditions which made it unavoidable?
- dev_tty01 5y agoDelays got us to this month. Other delays got us to this week. Weather issues delayed it from earlier this week to Christmas. Once you are spooled up for launch, unwinding all of that just to avoid a holiday is not worth it.
- ivve 5y agoAmazing and terrible! Thanks for the clear answer. Sounds like you were on the team: If so, thanks for your contribution!
- Simon_O_Rourke 5y agoThanks for all you and your team's efforts to advance human knowledge!
- legel 5y agoCheers to this! A fantastic day when decades of humanity’s scientific dreams are successfully launched, to fuel the next generation of discovery.
- jtchang 5y agoI'd be stoked to launch a space telescope as a christmas present! Congrats to them!
- amildie 5y agoThank you, and your team, for your amazing work.
- mabbo 5y agoThere's a Christmas every year. A major telescope launch is apparently once a generation.
- Buttons840 5y agoYeah. I commented to my family that this telescope took multiple countries years to build. I'm not sure if it's just that difficult, or if budgets are too small.
- devoutsalsa 5y agoThe JWST has a number of trailblazing technologies. Real Engineering did a great video on it: https://youtu.be/aICaAEXDJQQ https://youtu.be/aICaAEXDJQQ
- sandworm101 5y ago>> apparently once a generation I hope not. This one is only going to last 10 years. Kepler also only lasted 10 years. Given the time it took to build it, I hope the JWST's replacement is already well into development. The reality is that space telescopes are launched every couple years without much fanfare. This just happens to be a very big and expensive one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_telescopes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_telescopes
- rjn 5y agoonly reason for 10 years is fuel, I think they are working on a robot to refuel it to increase the lifetime.
- gibolt 5y agoHopefully this restraint will become less significant for future missions. Starship should mean larger payload volume (less folding/structure required), far more payload capacity, far lower costs, and more frequent flights. Refueling and refurbishment costs should become much more acceptable as viable approaches emerge due to dropping ticket cost to space.
- 5y ago
- junon 5y agoThank you and your NASA colleagues for me please. The launch was beautiful.
- seanw444 5y agoIf any of them are reading this comment section, thank you NASA engineers for launching such an awesome Christmas present. I'm looking very forward to seeing the photos of the successor to the Hubble. Hubble had already given us such historical photos, and now we'll have an even better picture. Truly a landmark in history if all goes well.
- Rebelgecko 5y agoA friend of mine is in Kourou, I think she would've preferred to launch a few days ago so she'd be able to spend Christmas and New Year's with loved ones