 |
| The telescope is expected to revolutionise the observation of the universe. |
james webb telescope,space telescope,james webb telescope,launch,jwst,james webb,james webb space telescope,webb telescope,frenc guiana capital,french
Like children dreaming of gifts under a tree, scientists wait patiently in the Jupiter control room at the Guyana Space Center in Kourou on December 25.
The James Webb Space Telescope - soon to be the most powerful telescope ever launched into space - after technical and weather-related delays scheduled for a Christmas Day liftoff from the base in the South American division of France.
"We can't wait to launch it," says Jean-Luc Meistre, engineer and deputy director of operations at the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES).
The payload of this rocket, the Webb Telescope, is a piece of technology that thousands of people have worked on for more than a quarter of a century.
"Everything is ready," Meester adds. "Now all we need is the right weather."
For days, high winds and rain pounded the dense tropical jungle surrounding the base, though you'd never know it from inside the vault-like control room, whose windowless walls are dominated by a flurry of glowing screens.
This is where all the information about the launch converges - and now the predictions are finally in their favour.
The Webb Telescope is set to revolutionize observing the universe and astronomers and astrophysicists have been looking to deploy it for decades.
Its successful launch will be the start of a month-long journey, after which a minute chain of events must be halted before it can begin transmitting images from some of the most distant known places in space and time.
But despite Webb's 25 years and billions of dollars being racked up, there's no sign of any stress on this particular launch.
“Of course this project is of particular interest,” says Bruno Erin, Arianespace's mission manager.
He says that while his team knows the stakes are high, experience and training keep them from feeling stressed.
On Saturday, an audience of scientists and the heads of NASA and the Canadian and European space agencies will gather to observe the control room from behind large large windows as it becomes a beehive for activity.
 |
| The payload of this rocket, the Webb Telescope, is a piece of technology that thousands of people have worked on for more than a quart |
Mestre and his colleagues will have been at mission control since midnight, celebrating what he calls a "sober" Christmas Eve.
Since the Webb telescope arrived in Kourou from the US where it was built, two minor technical incidents have caused delays: the activation of an instrument only meant to engage after launch, followed by the failure of a communication system.
The weather forced a third delay.
Vincent Bertrand-Noel, flight safety engineer at CNES, says bad weather poses the biggest risk for people on the ground should the 780-tonne rocket go off course and need to be destroyed.
His unit, completely separate from the control room, has the authority to "intervene if the rocket veers outside its flight path".
In 2019 such an incident took place when a Vega satellite launcher broke in two.
If something like that happens, it's Bertrand-Noel's job to explode the rocket, transforming it into a rain of debris—an occurrence that is rare but nonetheless poses a danger to Kourou and its 25,000 inhabitants.
"Plus when there's a launch everyone goes to the beach to watch," says Bertrand-Noel.
