Webb Space Telescope: Go for Launch with ESA Expert

01I've never participated to the Olympic Games, but I think that an athlete might feel the same way.

02You prepare for years and years and years, you check everything, you train, you train, you train, and then comes the big day.

03In rocketry it's the same.

04I've participated for more than 100 launches.

05Each launch is so particular that it's like falling in love each day again.

06So very special.

07I won't miss this one.

08It will be the top light of my career.

09This is NASA's Curious Universe.

10Our universe is a wild and wonderful place.

11I'm Patti Boyd, and in this podcast, NASA is your tour guide.

12After years of planning, preparation, and anticipation, the time has finally come to send the world's most powerful telescope into space.

13Once it reaches its final destination, the James Webb Space Telescope will send back information about the cosmos for years to come, and scientists anticipate that Webb's research will fundamentally change our understanding of the universe.

14We've explored the science, engineering, and people of Webb.

15We're at the end of our miniseries, and it's time to talk about the launch of this historic mission.

16My name is Rudi Albert, Rudiger is first name, Rudi Shorten, and I'm working for the European Space Agency, ESA.

17And I'm there, the Ariane 5 program manager.

18So my job as a program manager is to prepare the Ariane launcher for new missions and new destinations.

19And Webb is one of the highlights of these missions.

20First, it started very early.

21I'm born in the 60s, so I'm a pure Apollo kid.

22I grew up with black and white television and Apollo on it, and I followed it.

23My eyes were riveted on the screen.

24Later, I got a stiff neck because the eyes were riveted to the skies.

25Rudi Albert of the European Space Agency, or ESA, will be a key player during launch day.

26As the Ariane 5 program manager, it's his job to keep the team on track and make sure the rocket is ready to launch Webb to space.

27During the day of the launch, we will be totally 100, 200% focused on the launch.

28We are very much aware of the uniqueness of this passenger we have on board.

29All our concentration, all our focus will be on the launch, mine included.

30Many NASA launches occur right on the United States' space coast, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

31But this one is a little different.

32Webb will launch from Karoo, French Guiana, which is situated on the northeastern coast of South America.

33Webb will head to space from a launch pad operated by the European Space Agency.

34This is an international collaboration, after all.

35But beyond that, Karoo provides a prime location for Webb to shoot off into space towards its final destination.

36It is beneficial for launch sites to be located near the equator.

37The spin of the Earth can help give an additional push.

38We are not the only launch site which can produce such missions.

39You see wonderful missions going out from the Cape each month.

40We have a few safety constraints.

41We have the Atlantic Ocean on the north and the east, so we can, again, know security constraints.

42And the third thing we have, and the others don't have, and you don't have at the Cape, is the rotation speed of the equator.

43We are just 300 miles away.

44So this brings some extra performance, which is very helpful for missions as for Webb.

45In order to get to its launch site, Webb has to make a great journey, covering thousands of miles.

46After the different parts of Webb were assembled individually, some in different countries, Webb was transported to a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California.

47That's where engineers put everything together into one spacecraft, and then performed a lot of tests to make sure everything was in working order.

48Now, Webb is a large spacecraft, so in order to travel to Karoo and then up into space, it has to be folded, origami style, for shipment.

49Then it's got to be fit compactly inside the fairing of Ariane 5, which is about 16 feet, or 5 meters, wide.

50And it has to be shipped through the Panama Canal to get there.

51Here's Rudy from earlier this year, before Webb had shipped.

52Oh, this will be a real adventure.

53James Webb will go to French Guiana, and we will mobilize a lot of vessels, a lot of ships, a lot of airplanes.

54It will be an armada coming from California, being shipped through the Panama Canal, coming to French Guiana, taking there our only one state road.

55to the preparation facilities.

56This will be big logistics for NASA, and also for us from ESA.

57The lead-up to launch has been a truly exciting time.

58With Webb traveling across an ocean, and many people hustling to make final preparations, all eyes will be on Webb, as the telescope prepares to get to work in space.

59To get there, Webb will need the assistance of an incredibly capable rocket called the Ariane 5.

60The Ariane 5 is one of the world's most reliable launch vehicles, capable of delivering Webb to its destination in space.

61The rocket is right now sleeping in our rocket preparation hall in French Guiana, in Kouroum, is waiting there for the arrival of James Webb.

62Once we have the green light to go into the launch campaign, we will wake up the rocket, and then we go.

63So the rocket is sleeping very well, waiting for his prince, Prince Webb.

64The day that Webb launches to space will be an incredibly important day.

65Scientists, engineers, and space enthusiasts across the globe will be on the edge of their seats with anticipation, with all eyes on Webb.

66The lead-up to launch day is like a great relay race, where each group has completed their specific task and then sent the spacecraft along to the next phase of its journey.

67This step is the final leg of Webb's journey on Earth.

68Rudy's team at the European Space Agency is responsible for one of the most crucial tasks, ensuring Webb gets to space safely after launching from Ariane 5.

69And this rocket is so massive, Rudy can't describe it in one word.

70I would say I would be two.

71The two big words would be big and powerful.

72I like to go to see the rocket just the day before the launch in the evening, and then I'm all alone there looking to the launch, and again I get a stiff neck because I look upwards, and I see there a rocket as tall as a cathedral.

73It really looks powerful.

74It is capable to carry about 50,000 pounds to space, so it's a real 20-story high beast.

75It is flanked by two big solid rocket boosters, a little bit like the shuttle.

76It weighs about 750 metric tons, so it's really a big rocket.

77And this Ariane 5 is our specialist to bring into space a multitude of missions.

78It flies for science, it flies for exploration, for chasing comets or asteroids, brings cargo to the International Space Station.

79It brings satellites for uses from navigation, meteorology, telecommunication.

80So really, Ariane is going everywhere.

81So it's a beautiful, very major, and a reliable launcher.

82Rudy has overseen ESA launches for years, and knows just what to expect for a launch.

83Let's join him on a tour of a typical launch day.

84I could take you with me a day of a launch.

85So it starts quite early, and it will start first with the weatherman, which is the most important man of the day.

86This guy is the only one which can hold us on ground.

87And once our weatherman has given green light, we will all head to the launcher control center, where we prepare the rocket.

88The launcher control center, you have to imagine it like the cockpit of an airplane.

89You're sitting in the cockpit, and you're preparing the airplane for flight.

90This means that we start to prepare the launcher for the propellant loading.

91We perform the electrical wiring on, we put energy on, and we fill the launcher.

92And once the launcher is set for launch, ready, fully filled, I take my car, and I run to the launch control center.

93So there's a second control center, and this you have to imagine, like the tower of an airport.

94And in this tower are all the people which are required to perform a launch, meaning the people which put radars on the launcher to track it, to follow the launch trajectory, people which take care of energy, which take care of all the infrastructure, and me as the launcher guy.

95And then we put the final sequence on, and off it goes, fully automatic.

96This would be a typical day of a launch, which will then end at the end of the day with a 30-minute exciting mission to bring the spacecraft to space.

97Just before launch day, the ESA team meets for a discussion and to go over protocols.

98By this point, they've run through a number of tests and exercises to prepare for the big day.

99The day before the launch, we all have together, all the launch team, a minute where we are all together asking around in the circle, did you forget something?

100And this is really an important moment where we all go inside and check and recheck, and it is the moment where we decide together, yes, we are ready.

101We are all ready to go.

102On the day of launch, Rudy and his team will be looking out for anything that could impact a launch.

103They do not want to put the Webb telescope in harm's way.

104There are a few things Rudy and his team will be looking out for.

105Even though Ariane 5 is a massive rocket, the team won't want to launch it under some circumstances.

106For example, some weather effects, like strong winds, could cause a rocket to bend.

107Rockets do not like to bend, so there are limits.

108If we have two strong shear winds, the rocket would not like that at all.

109Meaning that this would be, for example, one criterion.

110The weatherman comes saying, we have jet streams today, we have shear winds, we go back to the launch center, but we won't fly that day.

111So shear wind is one example.

112If the weatherman comes back with sad eyes telling us that there are heavy, heavy rain showers with gusts waiting for us, the rocket is waterproof, but these heavy rain showers and the gusts might be a problem.

113Once the European Space Agency does state the all clear for launch, those attending the launch will witness a true spectacle.

114The Ariane 5 will have a lot of power behind it.

115The rocket will do something which is incredible at the beginning.

116It will accelerate.

117Imagine the Eiffel Tower accelerating with the speed of a Formula One car, or for you in the US, a NASCAR.

118And it's accelerating with the speed not from 0 to 100 miles per hour.

119It's going up to 20,000 miles per hour with the same acceleration.

120After all of the years of hard work and preparation, the launch phase of Webb's mission will come to an end in around 26 minutes.

121After launch, the telescope will journey out to its new home.

122Webb will not orbit the Earth as the Hubble Space Telescope does.

123Instead, it will orbit the Sun one million miles away from the Earth.

124From this place, which scientists call the second Lagrange point, or L2, Webb will be protected from the light and heat of the Sun and Earth as it studies our cosmos.

125The first point, which is really special, is the position, the destiny.

126And this is a point at equilibrium between the Sun and the Earth.

127Webb becomes a fixed star which does not change its position between the Earth and the Sun.

128And that's what's so special, isn't it?

129That's what the astronomers like.

130They have a fixed platform in space to look to the Universe.

131About 27 minutes after launch, once the Ariane 5 propels Webb into space, the telescope and the upper stage of the rocket will separate.

132The first thing we do is that we assure that we take a safe distance from the Webb telescope.

133We do not want to operate the rocket beneath the just-released telescope.

134So we say goodbye to the telescope and we perform a drifting phase to come to a safe distance.

135It will take a month until Webb is in place at the Lagrange point orbit.

136All the while, the upper stage of Ariane 5 will detour away on this million-mile cosmic road trip as its companion speeds off into the distance.

137Once we are at the safe distance, we do a maneuver which we call end-of-life maneuver, meaning that we bring Ariane to the end of its life in a safe orbit where it will never meet James Webb again.

138And we will pass what we call passivate all the systems, meaning that we bring the rocket to a stable graveyard.

139And this is it.

140What I understand from Webb is that it will simply give to mankind the sharpest eyes we ever had to study the universe.

141We are outside of the atmosphere.

142We have the biggest telescope, the biggest mirrors which ever have been built.

143So it's simply the most powerful telescope which has been ever launched to space.

144And this, I really regret that we cannot see it in space.

145It will be the most majestic spacecraft ever built.

146It will be a stunning beauty, majestic in space.

147Rudy looks forward to a successful launch and to be able to achieve a historic moment with his colleagues and international partners.

148I will see these people and they will fill me with gratitude that I can work for them.

149The real special thing comes once the show is over, once the mission is done.

150Then you really have an explosion of joy between those which know that their baby is now well-born and on track to a good life and us because we have spent two or three months of very, very intense work to make this day happen.

151Though there's lots of excitement around launch day and though Webb will have already traveled so far to get to the launch pad, this is really only the beginning of the space telescope's journey.

152So for us launcher guys, the work is done roughly one and a half hours after the launch and then starts the real work of our colleagues from the spacecraft side.

153They will have then six months of work to commission their baby in space, six months to get it operational, available for the astronomers.

154And though the launch is an exciting time, Webb's journey through space is a much more terrifying process.

155There are so many things that need to go just right as Webb deploys the hundreds of tiny mechanisms needed to unfold its main parts.

156Once in orbit, Webb will unfold its delicate, five-layered sunshield until it reaches the size of a tennis court.

157Webb will then deploy its iconic 6.5-meter primary mirror that will detect the faint light of faraway stars and galaxies.

158This is the true start of Webb's mission, where the telescope can begin peering back to some of the most fascinating and perplexing objects in our universe.

159Webb will seek to solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around faraway stars, and probe the origins of our universe, providing us with key context about our place within it.

160What makes us human beings?

161I think it's curiosity and the capability to learn from the past.

162If I look to Webb, for me, it is an enormous invitation to our curiosity.

163We are all composed by stardust, and these new capabilities will bring us closer to the origins of the universe and closer to the origins of life.

164And this is simply thrilling.

165Next time on NASA's Curious Universe, we have a very special Spanish addition to our miniseries.

166Our friends at NASA en Español put together a podcast episode all about this marvelous mission in Spanish.

167Hola, Curious Universe listeners.

168My name is Noelia González, and if you're looking for more ways to learn about the Webb Space Telescope, I've got something special for you.

169We're getting ready to release the first ever Spanish episode of NASA's Curious Universe, all about the Webb Space Telescope.

170If you're interested and want to learn more, search for El Universo Curioso de la NASA in your favorite podcast app.

171And join me as we explore this mission and learn from the experts, all in Spanish.

172The episode drops December 16.

173Nuestro universo es un lugar salvaje y maravilloso.

174Y en este podcast, la NASA es tu guía turística.

175And don't forget to catch the launch of Webb set for December 22nd, 2021 by checking out NASA TV and find the latest information about the mission by visiting jwst.nasa.gov.

176This is NASA's Curious Universe.

177This episode was written and produced by Katie Atkinson, Liz Landau, and Christina Dana.

178The Curious Universe team includes Maddie Arnold and Michaela Sosby with support from Elissa Fielding.

179Special thanks to Ryland Heggie, Amber Strawn, Paul Geithner, Eric Smith, Natasha Pinnoll, Elise Fisher, Laura Betts, and the James Webb Space Telescope team.

180If you liked this episode, please let us know by leaving us a review, tweeting about the show at NASA, and sharing with a friend.

181Go to nasa.gov slash curiousuniverse for more information.

182NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for more information.

183NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory