Space News by Jeff Foust — July 6, 2021
The James Webb Space Telescope is one step closer to launch after a review of its Ariane launch vehicle, while NASA continues a separate review of the name of the spacecraft itself.
The European Space Agency announced July 1 that it, along with Arianespace, had successfully completed the final mission analysis review for the launch of JWST on an Ariane 5. “All technical evaluations performed by Arianespace on the mission’s key aspects, including the launch trajectory and payload separation, have shown positive results,” ESA said in a statement.
The Ariane 5 that will launch JWST has few changes from the version used for other missions, such as launches of commercial communications satellites. Maurice Te Plate, ESA JWST systems engineer, said at a June 28 session of the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society that there will be some modifications to the payload fairing, including acoustic protection to lower loads on the satellite during launch and a separation system for the fairing with a low shock load.
The modifications for JWST are largely limited to the fairing. “The rest of the rocket is not so much different from other Arianes,” he said.
More:
https://spacenews.com/jwst-passes-launch-review/
