News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope?.

Re:Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? by Pxtl on Friday August 27, 2021 @10:46AM (#28328498)
> Webb, with a mirror as tall as a two-story building and a protective shield the size of a tennis court

What kind of launch vehicle are they going to be using for that?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? by kryptn on Friday August 27, 2021 @10:55AM (#28328640)
The Ariane 5, launching out of French Guiana.

The sunshield will be folded on launch, and will unfurl once it reaches L2.

Here's a pretty good video that goes through the entire deployment process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6ihVeEoUdo

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? by optimalsolver on Friday August 27, 2021 @11:28AM (#28329068)
Hopefully no integer overflow on this launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk

https://hownot2code.com/2016/09/02/a-space-error-370-million...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? by shadowgovt on Friday August 27, 2021 @11:05AM (#28328793)
Is there an orbital trajectory or launch-facility-resources reason to be launching out of FG, or is it political?

Seems like the easiest way to avoid sea pirates would be to launch the Webb from its current country of residence.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? by Jtsummers on Friday August 27, 2021 @11:25AM (#28329045)
ESA launches out of FG. The reasons are its equatorial location, which makes it suitable (lower energy requirements) for geosynchronous orbits and, like Florida for NASA, the ocean to the east which reduces the downrange risks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiana_Space_Centre

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? by jtsiskin on Friday August 27, 2021 @10:54AM (#28328621)
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/launch.html
[ Parent | on HN ]