{"id":18538,"date":"2018-05-04T21:54:37","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T13:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-looks-into-fixing-james-webb-space-telescope-after-fasteners-come-loose\/"},"modified":"2018-05-04T21:54:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T13:54:37","slug":"nasa-looks-into-fixing-james-webb-space-telescope-after-fasteners-come-loose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-looks-into-fixing-james-webb-space-telescope-after-fasteners-come-loose\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA looks into fixing James Webb Space Telescope after fasteners come loose"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_417677\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-417677\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-417677\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/180504-webb-630x583.jpg\" alt=\"James Webb Space Telescope testing\" width=\"630\" height=\"583\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/180504-webb-630x583.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/180504-webb-768x711.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/180504-webb-1260x1166.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-417677\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s spacecraft element undergoes acoustic testing. (NASA Photo \/ Chris Gunn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA says it\u2019s reviewing its options for repair and corrective action for the multibillion-dollar James Webb Space Telescope after tests shook fastening hardware off the observatory\u2019s sunshield covers.<\/p>\n<p>The issue isn\u2019t expected to force further delays in the Webb Space Telescope\u2019s launch, which was recently postponed to no earlier than May 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Word of the loose hardware surfaced this week when Webb program director Greg Robinson referred to the issue during a presentation to the National Academies\u2019 Space Studies Board, sparking a report in Space News. Robinson was quoted as saying \u201cit\u2019s not terrible news, but it\u2019s not good news, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s follow-up report, NASA said it\u2019s not uncommon for such issues to turn up during pre-launch testing. \u201cThis is an example of why space systems are thoroughly and rigorously tested on the ground to uncover imperfections and fix them prior to launch,\u201d Robinson said in the NASA update.<\/p>\n<p>He said \u201cNASA is reviewing options for repair and the next steps in spacecraft element launch environmental testing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team is reviewing the test data and hardware configuration and is actively working towards corrective action in the near future,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWe expect to get back to the environmental test flow shortly and continue to move safely and methodically toward mission success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NASA's James Webb Telescope is short on time and money... again\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2luQN0NA828?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The telescope\u2019s components are currently at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems\u2019 facilities in Redondo Beach, Calif., for tests aimed at simulating the stresses that will be experienced during launch and deployment. The spacecraft element of the telescope&nbsp;\u2014 which includes the folded-up sunshield and support platform (also known as the spacecraft bus), but not the optics or scientific instruments&nbsp;\u2014 recently underwent two environmental tests.<\/p>\n<p>One test simulated the mechanical shock caused by separation of the telescope\u2019s payload adapter after launch. Another test subjected the spacecraft element to the extreme sound and resulting vibration that are associated with the launch. After the acoustic test, inspectors found that the fasteners designed to hold the sunshield in place during launch had come loose.<\/p>\n<p>Once NASA decides exactly how to proceed, the spacecraft element is due to undergo further testing, including a simulation of the intense shaking it\u2019ll get when it\u2019s launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s report could fuel further questions about the Webb telescope\u2019s progress. In March, NASA announced that it was postponing the launch by an additional year, increasing its oversight of Northrop Grumman\u2019s work and launching an independent review of the project. The agency might have to seek still more money from Congress for spacecraft development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s spacecraft element undergoes acoustic testing. (NASA Photo \/ Chris Gunn) NASA says it\u2019s reviewing its options for repair and corrective action for the multibillion-dollar James Webb Space Telescope after tests shook fastening hardware off the observatory\u2019s sunshield covers. The issue isn\u2019t expected to force further delays in the Webb Space [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}