Launch of new NASA space telescope delayed after incident

[George II]

Source: Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency says the launch of a new NASA telescope to replace the famed Hubble observatory is being postponed to allow experts to check the device for possible damage following an incident at its spaceport in French Guiana.

The ESA said in a statement late Monday that technicians had been preparing to attach the James Webb Space Telescope to a launch vehicle adapter when a clamp band suddenly loosened, jolting the delicate observatory.

“A NASA-led anomaly review board was immediately convened to investigate and instituted additional testing to determine with certainty (that) the incident did not damage any components,” ESA said. “NASA and its mission partners will provide an update when the testing is completed at the end of this week.”

ESA said the telescope will now launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket no earlier than Dec. 22 — four days after the original planned liftoff date of Dec. 18.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/space-launches-space-exploration-science-business-europe-3952579f91e46b1d392f8ae40f0f18c1

[electric_blue68]

1. Hopefully nothing was damaged! Just triple check!

[Journeyman]

2. Oops . . .

(someone probably won't get a Xmas bonus)

[George II]

3. Maybe Howard Wolowitz was trying to impress a girlfriend again, a la the Mars rover?

[packman]

4. A "delicate observatory" that they are going to put atop a rocket

and blast it off into space?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. There is some hint at why in a BBC article on this

'Incident' delays launch of James Webb Space Telescope

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
@BBCAmoson Twitter

10 hours ago

(snip)

Engineers were in the process of attaching the telescope to its launch adapter - the large ring that will hold it in place atop its rocket - when a securing clamp unexpectedly popped open.The concern is the event may have sent a mechanical shock through the telescope.

The US space agency statement read: "A Nasa-led anomaly review board was immediately convened to investigate and instituted additional testing to determine with certainty the incident did not damage any components. Nasa and its mission partners will provide an update when the testing is completed at the end of this week."

Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, the director of science at Nasa, said sensors that would normally be put on the telescope during transport had been taken off. "Just for sheer caution what we have done... [is go back] to a small number of subsystems and just do the functional tests to make sure that nothing happened as this energy went into went into the [telescope]," he told reporters."When you work on a $10bn telescope, conservatism is the order of the day."

The telescope is considered robust. It has been built to survive the intense shaking and noise when its Ariane rocket climbs away from the launch pad. Part of the development testing for Webb even involved putting it on a table and vibrating it at high frequency.

(snip)

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59388109

Sounds like although they have done all sorts of testing protocols for possible anomalous events during launch, etc., WHEN it was still securely attached in a way to minimize vibrations, they might not have had a test protocol for what might happen if the clap holding he instrument on the rocket itself, suddenly popped open (and, I'm guessing, caused it to bounce and vibrate). It might be okay if that happens while on the ground in some static position, but if that happens during launch, it might doom the unit.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. Launching puts stress on a payload in specific ways.

If a clamp caused it to fall on its side or violently rotated it on its axis...well, their packing job probably doesn't take that into account because it's not supposed to happen.

[Gore1FL]

6. That sucks. I hope nothing is wrong and they can meet the Dec 22 date. nt

[LudwigPastorius]

8. They better be thorough in going over it.

The Maytag Repairman would have to make a 930,000 mile house call if it's buggered up.