Ahead of its journey to its launch website, NASAs James Webb Space Telescope is revealed being lowered into its protective transport container in the Northrop Grumman clean room in Redondo Beach, California. Credit: NASA/Northrop Grumman
A Custom-Made “Suitcase”.
As an one-of-a-kind maker, Webb required a gigantic, specifically designed “suitcase” referred to as STTARS, brief for Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea. STTARS weighs about 168,000 pounds (76,000 kilograms). It is 18 feet (5.5 meters) high, 15 feet (4.6 meters) large, and 110 feet (33.5 meters) long– about two times the length of a semi-trailer.
This customized container was equipped for any unanticipated or severe conditions Webb might have encountered throughout travel. In designing, building, and screening STTARS, engineers thoroughly evaluated how to finest safeguard the container from heavy rainfall and other environmental aspects.
The Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) sits outside of Chamber A at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASAs James Webb Space Telescope completed cryogenic screening inside the chamber in November 2017. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn.
Charting the Course.
Preparation any trip is hard work. With Webb, added to that are the logistics of transporting a exceptionally sensitive and extremely large space telescope throughout two oceans.
For Charlie Diaz, Webbs launch site operations supervisor at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Webbs arrival in Kourou was the culmination of years of preparation: “There are simply countless various things that go on behind the scenes: pulling permits, preventing obstructions, choosing detours … all type of subtleties. Im so happy with our team– weve been operating at this now for a long time.”.
The Webb telescopes journey to space began with engineers loading the telescope into its protective transportation container. Waiting at Seal Beach was the ship that would bring Webb to French Guiana.
Webbs ship trip will eventually be bookended by 2 brief drives, one in California and one in French Guiana. The first took Webb from Northrop Grummans centers in Redondo Beach, California, to its close-by port of departure at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. The second drive will bring Webb from the Port de Pariacabo to its launch website of Europes Spaceport in Kourou.
Prior to these drives, Diazs team performed route studies using satellite images to understand the variables at stake. They kept in mind details to potholes that required to be filled or traffic lights that had to be lifted due to STTARS height. In case of emergencies, the team likewise selected “safe houses,” or places along the way where they might safely perform any required maintenance on the container.
Due to its large size and weight, STTARS traveled at a speed of only 5-10 miles per hour (8-16 kilometers per hour) on the road to keep a smooth ride.
While STTARS has formerly transferred Webb elements to other NASA or partner centers mainly by air, the group picked to transport Webb by sea to Kourou due to the logistics of landing at the Cayenne Airport in French Guiana. In addition, the drive from the Port de Pariacabo to Webbs launch website is reasonably short.
Compared to the turbulence of air travel and the forces experienced during landing, traveling by sea aboard the freight transport ship MN Colibri was quite literally smooth cruising. MN Colibri was developed particularly to transport massive rocket parts as well as delicate payloads to Europes Spaceport, likewise understood as the Guiana Space. On average, the ship cruised at around 15 knots, or 17 miles per hour (27 kilometers per hour). Sandra Irish, lead structural engineer for Webb at Goddard, supervised of making certain that no tensions would “rock the boat” past an appropriate level. Dealing with the shipping company and team, she and her group ensured a ship route for STTARS that prevented rough waters.
After getting here at Seal Beach, California, Webb (inside of the protective transport container) was filled into the MN Colibri. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center; Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Michael P. Menzel (AIMM); Victor Bradley.
Running a Clean Ship.
As with other spacecraft, Webb should be kept clean while it is on Earth.
STTARS is essentially a mobile clean room. When Webb is on the move, STTARS keeps a low level of pollutants inside the container– no more than 100 airborne particles greater than or equal to 0.5 microns in size. For referral, half a micron is simply one hundredth of the width of a human hair!
Webbs contamination control group employed numerous tried-and-true approaches to clean both the outdoors and inside of the container and prepare it for receiving and carrying Webb. Next, Webb was set up into STTARS while both were inside the Northrop Grumman tidy room.
STTARS cruised to French Guiana inside MN Colibris spacious cargo hold, protected from weather and the sea, together with other equipment and supplies for launch preparations. An advanced heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system constructed for STTARS controlled the humidity and kept an eye on and temperature level inside the container. A number of accompanying trailers, filled with dozens of pressurized bottles, provided a continuous supply of pristine, manufactured, dry air into the transporters interior.
Neil Patel, Webbs transportation manager at Goddard, was one of 5 Webb team members who accompanied STTARS on its journey to ensure that Webb would remain in excellent condition: “Traveling through the Panama Canal with Webb was an once-in-a-lifetime experience, and a newbie activity for our group. It was very special to be bringing this observatory to the very last place it will be here on Earth,” he said.
Having actually been transported by land, air, and now sea, the Webb telescope can currently be thought about a skilled traveler. Quickly, it will enter the final frontier it hasnt explored– the great area of space.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the worlds leading area science observatory when it releases in 2021. Webb will fix secrets in our planetary system, look beyond to remote worlds around other stars, and probe the strange structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is a worldwide program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Canadian Space Agency.
The Webb telescopes journey to space began with engineers loading the telescope into its protective transportation container. While STTARS has formerly transported Webb elements to other NASA or partner facilities primarily by air, the group picked to transport Webb by sea to Kourou due to the logistics of landing at the Cayenne Airport in French Guiana. Webbs contamination control group utilized a number of tried-and-true approaches to clean both the outdoors and inside of the container and prepare it for bring and receiving Webb. The James Webb Space Telescope will be the worlds leading space science observatory when it launches in 2021. Webb is a worldwide program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Canadian Space Agency.
NASAs James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
When NASAs James Webb Space Telescope launches, it will go through one of the most painful deployment processes any spacecraft has ever sustained. However prior to it even gets on top of its flight to area, Webb needed to finish a final journey here on Earth: a roughly 5,800-mile (9,300-kilometer) voyage at sea.
Webb was shipped from California on September 26, eventually going through the Panama Canal to reach the Port de Pariacabo– located on the Kourou River in French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America– on October 12. Webb will now be driven to its launch site, Europes Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will start 2 months of operational preparations before its set up December 18 launch.
With the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built as freight, absolutely nothing about this journey was normal.