Webb telescope arrives at outpost 1 million miles from Earth to begin study of distant galaxies
Source: Washington Post
NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope on Monday fired its thrusters for five minutes and reached its final destination, a special orbit around the sun where it will spend the rest of its life scrutinizing the universe and capturing light emitted soon after the big bang. The telescope has been cruising through space for a month since its Christmas launch from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.
The final course correction, the third engine burn since launch, placed the Webb in a gravitationally stable position known as L2, where it will always be roughly 1 million miles from Earth on the opposite side of our planet from the sun. A NASA representative said the engine burn ended at 2:05 p.m. and worked as planned. The high-risk, long-delayed mission, burdened with ambitious astronomy goals and a $10 billion price tag, has gone spectacularly well, overcoming an eye-popping list of potential snags that had haunted the dreams of engineers for years. More challenges lie ahead, but the engineers and scientists are breathing more easily.
“Everything went according to script,” John Durning, NASA’s deputy project manager for the Webb, said in an interview Monday morning. “It was shocking. We expected challenges, as every mission does. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing went wrong.” The Webb, launched in a folded position, has unfurled itself over the past month, deploying solar arrays, a sprawling multilayered sun shield and an array of 18 gold-plated hexagonal mirrors that collectively are designed to function as a light bucket with a diameter of about 21 feet (6.5-meters).
Beyond the fact that the telescope seems to have followed commands from mission controllers to a T, the launch itself and two subsequent engine burns were so efficient that the Webb did not expend very much fuel to get where it is going. The extra fuel will prolong the lifetime of the telescope by years, well beyond its official 10-year target. “We doubled the mission life. The budget was for 10 years. With this new estimate, we’re about 20-plus years,” Durning said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/01/24/webb-space-telescope-final-destination/
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scientists! 
Ty for posting!
Can't wait for the first pics! 
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