NASA's Curious Universe - Webb Space Telescope: Go for Launch with ESA Expert

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

After years of preparation and anticipation, it’s time to send the world’s most powerful telescope to space. Ariane 5 rocket expert Rudi Albat (ESA) takes you through launch day and describes why the launcher that will carry Webb to its final destination is one of a kind.

I've never participated to the Olympic Games, but I think that an athlete might feel the same way. You prepare for years and years and years, you check everything, you train, you train, you train. And then comes the big day. In rocketry, it's the same. I've participated for more than 100 launches. Each launch is so particular that it's like falling in love each day again. So very special. I won't miss this one.

It will be the top light of my career. This is NASA's curious universe. Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. I'm Patty Boyd, and in this podcast, NASA is your tour guide. After years of planning, preparation and anticipation, the time has finally come to send the world's most powerful telescope into space. Once 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.

We've explored the science, engineering and people of Webb. We're at the end of our miniseries, and it's time to talk about the launch of this historic mission. My name is Rudi Albert, Rudiger as first name, Rudy Shortened. And I'm working for the European Space Agency, Isar. And I'm there, the Ariane 5 program manager. So my job as a program manager is to prepare the Aryan launcher for new missions and new destinations. And Webb is one of the highlights of these missions. First, it started very early.

I'm born in the 60s, so I'm a pure Apollo kid. I grew up with black and white television and Apollo on it, and I followed it. My eyes were riveted on the screen. Later, I got a stiff neck because the eyes riveted to the skies. Rudy Albutt of the European Space Agency, or ESA, will be a key player during launch day. As the Ariane 5 program manager, it's his job to keep the team on track and make sure the rocket is ready to launch Web to space. During the day of the launch, we will be totally 100, 200% focused on the launch.

We are very much aware of the uniqueness of this passenger we have on board. All our concentration, all our focus will be on the launch, mine included. Many NASA launches occur right on the United States Space Coast at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But this one is a little different. Webb will launch from Karoo, French Guiana, which is situated on the northeastern coast of South America. Webb will head to space from a launch pad operated by the European Space Agency. This is an international collaboration, after all.

But beyond that, Karu provides a prime location for Webb to shoot off into space towards its final destination. It is beneficial for launch sites to be located near the equator. The spin of the Earth can help give an additional push. We are not the only launch site which can produce such missions. You see wonderful missions going out from the Cape each month. What we can offer is low population around, meaning that we have few safety constraints. We have the Atlantic Ocean on the north, on the east,

so we can again know security constraints. And 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. We're just 300 miles away. So this brings some extra performance, which is very helpful for missions as for Web. In order to get to its launch site,

Webb has to make a great journey, covering thousands of miles. After the different parts of Webb were assembled individually, some in different countries, Webb was transported to a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California. That's where engineers put everything together into one spacecraft, and then performed a lot of tests to make sure everything was in working order.

Now, 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. Then it's got to be fit compactly inside the faring of Ariane 5, which is about 16 feet or 5 meters wide. meters wide. And it has to be shipped through the Panama Canal to get there. Here's Rudy from earlier this year, before Webb had shipped. Oh, this will be a real adventure. James Webb will go to French Guiyama and we will mobilize a lot of vessels, a lot of ships,

a lot of airplanes. It will be an armada coming from California being shipped through the Panama Canal coming to French Guiana taking there our only one. state road to the preparation facilities. This will be big logistics for NASA and also for us from Isar. The lead-up to launch has been a truly exciting time. With web traveling across an ocean and many people hustling to make final preparations, all eyes will be on Web as the telescope prepares to get to work in space. To get there, Webb will need the assistance of an incredibly capable rocket called the Arian Fai.

The Arian 5 is one of the world's most reliable launch vehicles, capable of delivering Webb to its destination in space. The rocket is right now sleeping in our rocket preparation hall in French Guiana in Kuru. Is waiting there for the arrival of James Webb. Once we have the green light to go into the launch campaign, we will wake up the rocket and then we go. So the rocket is sleeping very well waiting for his Prince Webb. The day that Webb launches to space will be an incredibly important day. Scientists, engineers and space enthusiasts across the globe will be on the edge of their seats with anticipation, with all eyes on Web.

The 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. This step is the final leg of Webb's journey on Earth. Rudy'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 Arian 5.

And this rocket is so massive, Rudy can't describe it in one word. I would say I would be two. The two big words, would be big and powerful. I 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. It really looks powerful. It is capable to carry about 50,000 pounds to space so it's a real 20-story high-beast. It is

flanked by two big solid rocket boosters, a little bit like the shuttle. It weights about 750 metric tons, so it's really a big rocket. And this Arian 5 is our specialist to bring into space a multitude of missions. It flies for science, it flies for exploration, for chasing comets or asteroids, brings cargo to the International Space Station. It brings satellites for uses from navigation, meteorology, telecommunications. So really, Ariane is going everywhere. So it's a beautiful, very major and a reliable launcher.

Rudy has overseen ESA launches for years and knows just what to expect for a launch. Let's join him on a tour of a typical launch day. I could take you with me a day of a launch. So it starts quite early, and it will start first with the weathermen, which is the most important man of the day. This guy is the only one which can hold us on ground. And once our weatherman has given green light, we will all head to the launcher control center, where we prepare the rocket. The launcher control center, you have to imagine it like the cockpit of an airplane. You are sitting in the cockpit and you're preparing the...

the airplane for flight. This means that we start to prepare the launcher for the propellant loading. We perform the electrical wiring on, we put energy on, and we fill the launcher. And once the launcher is set for launch, ready, fully filled, I take my car and I run to the launch control centers.

So there's a second control center. And this you have to imagine, like the tower of an airport. And in this tower are all the people which are required to perform a launch, meaning the people which put rudders 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. And then we put the final sequence on and off it goes fully automatic. This would be a typical day of a launch which will then end at the end of a day. with a 30-minute exciting mission to bring the spacecraft to space.

Just before launch day, the ESA team meets for a discussion and to go over protocols. By this point, they've run through a number of tests and exercises to prepare for the big day. The 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? And this is really an important moment where we all go inside and check and we check. And it is the moment where we decide together, yes, we are ready. We are all ready to go.

On the day of the launch, Rudy and his team will be looking out for anything that could impact a launch. They do not want to put the web telescope in harm's way. There are a few things Rudy and his team will be looking out for. Even though Arian 5 is a massive rocket, the team won't want to launch it under some circumstances. For example, some weather effects like strong winds could cause the rocket to bend. Rockets do not like to bend, so there are limits. If we have two strong shear winds, the rocket would not like that at all, meaning that this is what be, for example, one criteria.

The weatherman comes saying we have jet streams today, we have sheer winds, we go back to the launch center, but we won't fly that day. So shear wind is one example. If the weatherman comes back with set 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 gust might be a problem. Once the European Space Agency does state the All Clear for launch, those attending the launch will witness a true spectacle.

The Arian 5 will have a lot of power behind it. The rocket will do something which is incredible at the beginning. It will accelerate. Imagine the Eiffel Tower accelerating with the speed of a Formula One car, or for you in the US, a NASCAR. And it's accelerating with the speed not from zero to 100 miles per hour. It's going up to 20,000 miles per hour with the same acceleration. After 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. After launch, the telescope will journey out to its new home. Webb will not orbit the Earth as the Hubble Space Telescope does. Instead, it will orbit the Sun, one million miles away from the Earth. From 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. The first point which is really special is the position, the destiny. And this is a point at equilibrium between the sun and the Earth.

That becomes a fixed star, which does not change its position between the Earth and the Sun. And that's what's so special on it. That's what the astronomers like. They have a fixed platform in space to look to the universe. About 27 minutes after launch, once the air, Ariane 5 propels web into space, the telescope and the upper stage of the rocket will separate. The first thing we do is that we assure that we take a safe distance from the Webb telescope. We do not want to operate the rocket beneath the just-released telescope.

So we say goodbye to the telescope and we perform a drifting phase to come to a safe distance. It will take a month until web is in place, at the Lagrange point orbit. All the while, the upper stage of Arian 5 will detour away on this million-mile cosmic road trip as its companion speeds off into the distance. Once we are at the safe distance, we do a maneuver which we call end-of-life maneuver,

meaning that we bring Arian to the end of its life in a safe orbit where it will never meet James Webb again. And we will pass what we call passing. all the systems, meaning that we bring the rocket to a stable graveyard. And this is it. What I understand from that is that it will simply give to mankind the sharpest eyes we ever had to study the universe. We are outside of the atmosphere.

We have the biggest telescope, the biggest mirrors which ever have been built. So it's simply the most powerful telescope which has been ever launched to space. And this I really regret that we cannot see that. we get that we cannot see it in space. It will be the most majestic spacecraft ever built. It will be a stunning beauty, majestic in space. Rudy looks forward to a successful launch and to be able to achieve a historic moment with his colleagues and international partners. I will see these people and they will fill me with gratitude that I can work for them. The real special thing comes once the show is over,

Once the mission is done, then 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. In us, because we have spent two or three months of very, very intense work to make this day happen. Though there's lots of excitement around launch day, and the 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. So 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. They will have then six months of work to commission their baby in space, six months to get it operational available for the astronomers.

And though the launch is an exciting time, Webb's journey through space is a much more terrifying process. There are so many things that need to go just right as Webb deploys the hundreds of tiny mechanisms needed to unfold its main parts. Once in orbit, Webb will unfold its delicate, five-layered sun shield until it reaches the size of a tennis court. Webb will then deploy its iconic 6.5 meter primary mirror that will detect the faint light of faraway stars and galaxies. This 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. Webb will seek to solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant world around faraway stars, and probe the origins of our universe,

providing us with key context about our place within it. What makes us human beings, I think it's curiosity and the capability to learn from the past. If I look to web for me, it is an enormous invitation to our curiosity. We are all composed by star dust, and these new capabilities will bring us closer to the origins of the universe and closer to the origins of life. And this is simply thrilling. Next time on NASA's curious universe, We have a very special Spanish edition to our miniseries.

Our friends at NASA and Español put together a podcast episode all about this marvelous mission in Spanish. Hello, JuU's Universe listeners. My name is Noelia Gonzalez, and if you're looking for more ways to learn about the WebSpace Telescope, I've got something special for you. We're getting ready to release the first ever Spanish episode of NASA's Curious Unusale. all about the Webb Space Telescope.

If you're interested and want to learn more, search for the Univiso Curioso of NASA in your favorite podcast app. And join me as we explore this mission and learn from the experts, all in Spanish. The episode drops December 16. Nostro universe is a

salvage and marvelous and in this podcast, La NASA is your Guia Touristic. And don't forget to catch the launch of Webb set for December 22nd, 22nd, by checking out NASA TV and find the latest information about the mission by visiting JWST.nasa.gov.

This is NASA's Curious Universe. This episode was written and produced by Katie Atkinson, Liz Landau, and Christina Dana. The Curious Universe team includes Maddie Arnold and Michaela Sosby, with support from Elisa Fielding. Special thanks to Ryland Heggy, Amber Strone, Paul Geithner,

Eric Smith, Natasha Pinol, Elise Fisher, Laura Betz, and the James WebSpace Telescope team. If you liked this episode, please let us know by leaving us a review, tweeting about the show at NASA, and sharing with a friend. Go to nassah.gov slash curious universe for more information.