Rancho Vistoso Resident has been working on James Webb Space Telescope for 20 years... Launch (hopefully) next week... latest update here
Hopefully next week, the James Webb Space Telescope ("JWST") will be launched from French Gyuana. That would be the continuation of a 30 year effort. Once launch, the telescope will travel a million miles. Then, in a very delicate manner, it will be "unfolded" in a month long procedure. Once fully deployed, Webb will survey the universe with focus on understanding the beginning of it all.
"About 20 years ago, I started on JWST on the electrical design team that defined how the images that JWST will take, including those for the NIRCam and MIRI instruments led by the U of A, would be processed and stored on-board until downlinked, which will happen twice per day.
I then helped test and ensure all of the electronics from the various developers around the US and Canada operated correctly, and worked with simulators as we assembled and tested JWST at the Goddard Spec Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX and Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles, CA.
JWST is now in Kourou, French Guiana, on top of a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket, undergoing final testing and preparations for launch. We unfortunately had trouble communicating with JWST in this configuration. I worked with a great team of engineers to find and fix what turned out to be test cabling issues. We’ve resumed testing JWST and will hopefully launch on Christmas Eve."
Fingers crossed. Please join us in wishing Chris and the entire JWST team good luck. That would be a great Christmas present for them.
- - -You can learn about JWST and its mission here.
