Thomas Zurbuchen January 24, 2022īefore launch, engineers said Webb likely would have enough propellant to operate for five to 10 years. I'm so excited to see what's uncovered as Webb begins to send images back this summer. This orbit will allow a wide view of the cosmos at any given moment. Because the orbit around L2 is not perfectly stable, small thruster firings will be carried out every three weeks or so to maintain the telescope's trajectory.Ĭongrats to the team! is now in its new stable home in space & one step closer to helping us #UnfoldTheUniverse. Those extremely low temperatures are required for Webb to register the exceedingly faint infrared light from the first stars and galaxies.įor the rest of its operational life, Webb will circle L2 at distances between 155,000 and 517,000 miles, taking six months to complete one orbit. A NASA diagram showing Webb's orbit around Lagrange Point 2, edited to indicate the telescope's location at the time of Monday's orbit insertion burn and where the telescope will be six months after launch when science operations begin (measured in kilometers from L2).Īs of Monday, Webb's secondary mirror had cooled down to nearly minus 400 Fahrenheit with the primary mirror segments following suit at different rates based on their location. Regardless of what the final number is, we're just all going to be thrilled."Īlong with saving fuel, orbiting L2 also will allow Webb to observe the universe while keeping its giant sunshade broadside to the sun and the telescope's optics and instruments on the cold side. "You've heard numbers around 20 years, we think that's probably a good ballpark. "We're going to extensively exceed our 10-year life," he told reporters. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer!" We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. "Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb's safe arrival at L2 today. "Webb, welcome home!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a blog post. An artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. EST that increased Webb's velocity by a mere 3.6 mph, just enough to ease it into a six-month orbit around L2. The push came in the form of a 4-minute 57-second thruster firing at 2 p.m. The James Webb Space Telescope slipped into orbit around a point in space nearly a million miles from Earth Monday where it can capture light from the first stars and galaxies to form in the aftermath of the Big Bang.Īs planned, the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on Christmas Day put the telescope on a trajectory that required only a slight push to reach the intended orbit around Lagrange Point 2, or L2, one of five spots where the pull of sun and Earth interact to form stable or nearly stable gravitational zones. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reaches orbit nearly 1 million miles away 04:27
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