Kourou: Like kids dreaming of presents under the tree, the scientists at the Jupiter control room at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou are patiently waiting for December 25.
The James Webb Space Telescope — soon to become the most powerful ever to be launched into space — after technical and weather delays is set to take off on Christmas Day from the base in France’s South American department.
“We can’t wait for it to launch,” says Jean-Luc Mestre, engineer and vice-director of operations at the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).
This rocket’s payload, the Webb telescope, is a piece of technology worked on by thousands of people for over a quarter of a century.
“Everything is ready,” Mestre adds. “Now all we need is the right weather.”
For days, heavy winds and rain have lashed the dense tropical forest surrounding the base, though you’d never know it from inside the vault-like control room, its windowless walls dominated by a bank of glowing screens.
This is where all the information about the launch converges — and now the forecast is finally in its favour.
The Webb telescope is expected to revolutionise the observation of the universe and astronomers and astrophysicists have been looking forward to its deployment for decades.
Its successful launch will be the start of a month-long trip after which a delicate sequence of events has to be pulled off before it will begin to beam back images from some of the farthest known reaches of space and time.
But while Webb has been 25 years and billions of dollars in the making, there is nothing to indicate any stress over this particular launch.
“Of course this project has particular importance,” says Arianespace mission director Bruno Erin.
He says while his team knows the stakes are high, experience and training prevent them from feeling nervous.
On Saturday, an audience of scientists and the heads of Nasa and the Canadian and European space agencies will gather to observe the control room from behind huge bay windows as it becomes a hive of activity. AFP
