An international $5-billion dollar next-generation space telescope is being prepared for launch in 2014, if on schedule and within budget named after former NASA Administrator James Webb. But the revolutionary telescope is at least $1.5 billion over budget and three years behind schedule, with the possibility of more time and money needed. Such is the nature of "Big Science."
When launched in 2014 aboard an Ariane-5 from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, NASA plans to station the Webb telescope about 1 million miles away in what's known as a Lagrange point — a cosmic neutral ground where the tug of the Earth and sun even out so that objects in such a spot stay almost stationary.
Engineers and scientists must make certain that the James Webb Telescope functions properly because of the deployment location so far from Earth. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting 350-miles above, there will be fewer service mission options for the James Webb Telescope. More from The Orlando Sentinel.
No comments:
Post a Comment