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Wednesday, October 20, 2021
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: James Webb Space Telescope Deployment—“29 Days on the Edge”
Here are some statistics to ponder:
- 50 major deployment events
- 178 release mechanisms
- 300 single-point failure items
- Sun shield:
- 140 release mechanisms
- 70 hinge assemblies
- 8 deployment motors
- 400 pullies
- 90 cables, totalling 400 metres in length
All of this has to work, or the James Webb Space Telescope, which has been under development for 25 years and cost US$10 billion, will be space junk. Positioned in an Earth-Sun L2 halo orbit, no repair mission will be possible.
Posted at October 20, 2021 13:25