Independent analysis and verification of the project of the space telescope “James Webb” continue, and the experts involved in the Assembly of the apparatus, it seems, faced with a new problem at his final test, according to SpaceNews.
At a recent presentation at the meeting of the Council on space research of National Academy of Sciences program Manager of the space telescope “James Webb” Greg Robinson said that during the last test of the vehicle design at the company Northrop Grumman in southern California it fell “screws and washers”.
Techniques found these items after moved one element of the telescope – solar protective screen from the chamber acoustic tests to prepare for the vibration tests in the other chamber.
“At the moment we believe that all of these details – we mean the screws and washers are part of the sun coverage of the telescope. Now we know where they fell, and then tackle the problems,” commented Robinson, also noting that the incident occurred a few days ago, so the team there is no accurate answers to these questions.
“This is not terrible news, but not good”, — said the Deputy head of the science mission Directorate at NASA.
The incident, according to Robinson, once again showed the importance of thorough inspections and tests of the spacecraft before it is ready for launch.
“That’s why we conduct tests and checks. We held them now and now found the problem. We are all correct and fully prepare the machine to launch.”
This is not the first problem faced by the creators of the long-awaited telescope. In late March, NASA made an announcement, which again upset many scholars have confused them card and now will lead to increased spending of budget funds. Calling as the reason for a number of technical hiccups and errors, which could have been avoided, NASA management stated that the launch of the telescope is moved from 2019 to may 2020. At the same time, the Agency involved in the project have an independent group of experts to conduct a thorough analysis of the project and helped prepare the equipment for the new launch date.
NASA: telescope “James Webb” pouring screws and nuts
Nikolai Khizhnyak