Celebrate #Christmas2021 very early tomorrow — watch as he James Webb Space Telescope launches during a 32-minute window that opens at 7:20 a.m. EST from Kourou, French Guiana, atop an Ariane 5 rocket. Live at https://t.co/Q2KZBb2mKZ beginning at 6 a.m. EST.
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) December 24, 2021
Probably of interest only to those who already know about it, but still…
LIVE NOW: Watch @NASAWebb, the world’s most powerful space telescope, launch on a mission to #UnfoldTheUniverse.
? With its 7:20am ET (12:20 UTC) liftoff, Webb will usher in a new era of astronomy.
Have questions? Drop them below. https://t.co/GgJFxbflRO
— NASA (@NASA) December 25, 2021
my rocket scientist cousin just noted that the jwst will launch on dec. 25, the birthday anniversary of a historical figure who changed the world: isaac newton
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) December 24, 2021
The James Webb Space Telescope will be humanity’s most powerful instrument for studying the formation of our universe and distant worlds in our galaxy.
But the Webb has trudged through one of the most fraught development timelines of any space program. https://t.co/nQm2NI62xM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 24, 2021
Baud
Can’t wait for the photos.
Merry Christmas!
PAM Dirac
I’m tuned in. After all these years it’s hard to believe the launch is less than an hour away.
Quinerly
Merry Christmas!
SiubhanDuinne
Merry Christmas, all, and happy birthday to Sir Isaac! Only 45 minutes now until the launch window opens!
p.a.
Don’t forget to install your NASA app!
Also too, Merry Christmas.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Not sure I like the competition.
Baud
@p.a.:
What does the NASA app do?
SteveinPHX
One of my sons is working on his doctorate in astrophysics. He’s excited about this. Successful deployment will give the field plenty of new research opportunities.
Merry Christmas!
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Heh. You combine earth and sky. I don’t think JW will have much earth.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Wait until they hear about “The Happy Slider”, aka compositing.
Raven
The James Webb who wrote “Wichita Lineman”?
Geo Wilcox
@Raven: No the homophobe…
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-needs-to-rename-the-james-webb-space-telescope/
p.a.
@Baud: Access to news, images, videos, missions, schedules, tweets, live launches, more
cope
I’ve been waiting years and years for this to happen. Getting JWST to the L2 point orbit and then unfolding the origami observatory will make landing on Mars look like a walk in the park.
Baud
@p.a.:
Thanks!
PAM Dirac
Go Webb Go!
PAM Dirac
4 minutes in and still looking good.
Raven
@Geo Wilcox: ah, not the right wing senator either!
Kalakal
Still looking good!
Baud
Props to the guy taking the live action video of the telescope.
cope
@Baud: He (or she) better be getting hazard pay and a travel stipend.
cope
Separation. It’s NASA’s mission now.
lowtechcyclist
Yep, the observatory is on its own, on its way to L2.
Merry Christmas, and happy birthday, Isaac Newton!
cope
There’s a lot left to get done first but here’s hoping for many a future BJ post about various images and discoveries of JWST.
Spanky
Merci, Arianne!
A lot of gray heads in that MOC. A lot of guys I know from my time at GSFC have been working towards this for a long time. Retirements deferred.
Someone’s chopping onions in here.
Kalakal
All looking very good, powered up and on its own. A lot of very happy (and relieved French people ). Now for a demonstration of birthday boy Isaacs orbital mechanics in action.
Merry Christmas all
Geminid
@Raven: Senator James Webb beat George Allen, which was a good thing, then retired after one term, which I thought was also good, especially when Tom Kaine took his place. Haven’t heard much from him since, which is probably good too.
The songwriter still wins Best-in-Webb.
WereBear
@cope: All day I’ll be thinking “unfolding the origami observatory” so thank you :)
My favorite Christmas present this morning is this article:
Warmed my heart.
S. Cerevisiae
I know that there’s a lot of things that still need to go right but I am very relieved that it’s powered up and on course. Science! ?
debbie
Huh. I woke up at 7:20. I must have heard the takeoff. Go, Webb, go!
Ken
Careful, if the thing doesn’t unfold properly they’re going to be looking for a scapegoat.
Besides, to me what makes your pictures beautiful is the combination of the stars with the objects in the foreground. (For values of “foreground” that include “mountain range 15 miles away”.)
Fair Economist
Fortunately as a Left Coaster I slept though the scariest parts. Congratulations to all involved in this amazing feat of global cooperation. Hoping the rest goes as well; I’m excited about the pics too.
Baud
Good comment on Reddit explaining Webb telescope.
Ken
It’s a Christmas miracle!
P Thomas
XKCD is monitoring the mission. Mouseover text especially good.
oldgold
Gerry Doyle: “My rocket scientist cousin just noted that the jwst will launch on dec. 25, the birthday anniversary of a historical figure who changed the world: Issac Newton.“
Good story, but Isaac Newton was born January 4, 1643. And, after suffering through 2 years of calculus, my feelings on his changing the the world are decidedly mixed.
WaterGirl
@P Thomas: Your link wasn’t working so I fixed it and then linked it to the text.
P Thomas
@WaterGirl: Thank you so much! Merry xkcd…or something like that!
Ken
Julian/Gregorian switchover, so you’re both right.
dmsilev
@oldgold: Yes and no. When Newton was born, England was still using the old Julian calendar, and dates had slipped by several days relative to the more accurate Gregorian. They switched a century or so after Newton’s birth if memory serves, and you have to account for the ‘missing’ days…
Betty
It may have taken a long time because of mishaps, but the telescope and the launch give you renewed faith in humanity’s ability to do some things extremely well. The collaboration and the precision are heartening.
Jerzy Russian
@dmsilev: Designers of time machines need to be especially careful to account for these issues that arise when different calendars were in use.
Raoul Paste
Very late to this thread, but I’m so excited about this telescope
Also Merry Christmas to all
Jim Appleton
@Jerzy Russian: To really nerd out on calibration, check Tom Scott.
laura
@Raven: No, the one who wrote The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress?
Kalakal
@Jerzy Russian: And for when the year actually started on March 25th rather than Jan 1st
Yutsano
I am of course just waking up now. I’m so relieved the James Webb telescope went up without a problem so far. But to be fair that was the easier part. The unfolding at the end of January…I need to download the NASA Eyes app again.
Another Scott
@Jim Appleton: (Relatedly) It’s a tough problem, but MS Windows seemed to have a really stupid way of dealing with ST/DST issues. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but there seemed to be a time in the not too distant past whenever there was a time change that Windows would furiously work in the background to change the timestamp of every file. It could cause lots of problems if some PCs on the network didn’t have the TZ or ST/DST flags set properly.
“WTF? Why does this backup copy of this datafile have a timestamp that’s an hour off from the current one??!”
:-/
Only 16 years to go until the 32-bit Unix epoch rolls over!!1
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
For example, do not try to land in Samoa on December 30, 2011 — the country changed time zones to cross the international date line, and went directly from the 29th to the 31st.
Jim Appleton
@Another Scott: Thx. Learned I’m a shade over 22,000 days old.