Launch of new NASA space telescope delayed after incident

[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.