Dashboard for James Webb Space Telescope

[dmm]

jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

Comments

[dmm]

So, that was the "fully deployed" status.

"The largest, most complex telescope ever launched into space is fully deployed.

Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Webb will continue to travel to the second Lagrange point (L2) for another two weeks, at which point it will enter a large orbit around the L2 point. The following five months will be used to cool the telescope to operating temperature, fine-tune the mirror alignment, and calibrate the instruments."

Almost 80% of the distance covered, almost 17 days since launch, the speed is down to 0.2175 miles per second, 715000 miles covered, 183000 miles to go.

[dmm]

92% of distance, 70000 miles to go, speed is down to 0.15 miles per second, 23 days since launch, mirror segment deployment in progress. 6 days till L2 insertion.

[dmm]

Interesting that the speed is still pretty high (I thought they were planning to lose speed early in order not to overshoot).

Mirror segment deployment was completed a while ago.

29 days since launch, 98% of distances, speed is down to 0.13 miles per second, 16000 miles to go, L2 insertion in a day from now.