Yeah I got an unwanted stake in this beesh
I am so glad that - despite all the "what-ifs" - this project happened. And I truly hope, when it gets in position and unfurled - that it will be like the Mars Rovers and impress the ever-lovin shit outta the world. It'd be nice for space science to have another big win right now. And... holy shit... who ever thought that our first time travel machine would be based on a mirror? Crazy world, man...
It'll work. The biggest reason it's so behind schedule and over budget is because they're making damn sure everything's good to go. Honestly, though, there's a fiscal argument against that sort of treatment. There isn't any quality assurance oversight required for sounding rocket missions (sub-orbital, and typically flying through the aurora), and even though the success rate is only maybe 85%, you're saving shittons of money by not trying to guarantee that last 15% or 14%. More than enough to just build the thing twice and fix whatever wrong and try again. Of course, it gets complicated because subcontractors have reputations to maintain, especially for the bigger, costlier missions. I'm pretty excited for all the breakthroughs in cosmology this should enable, but I'm absolutely stoked about imaging other solar systems. I'm consciously expecting wayyyyyyy too much. Like if I go and look up the imaging resolution of the thing, I know I'm gonna be disappointed, so I just, uh, won't.
My boss once told me that if I wasn't breaking things from time to time, I wasn't really working in the lab. I've definitely pressurized a small vacuum chamber instantly. I've also blown LN2 boil-off wayyyyy too quickly through a flight-qualified instrument. Got lucky - no damage. Knew a scientist who dropped a flight instrument he was handling, one of the sensors that eventually flew to Pluto on New Horizons, and he was forever known as Dr. Destructo. But none of this was as bad as the time one of the techs left a pen inside the biggest vacuum chamber on campus. They had to clean. Everything. But what Lockheed did there is like breaking The Thing. It still blows my mind that the interfacing flange bolts of an entire payload were somehow gone (not loose: gone) before someone decided to rotate it, presumably to measure the moments of inertia(?). If JWST fell like that, it'd be donezo. The hexagonal mirrors would surely be warped to the point of scrapping. When I hear about mishaps that will cost a few more days, I breathe a sigh of relief. The good news about launching something to Lagrange point 2 is that Earthen Lagrange points ain't going anywhere. You don't need gravity assists like a planetary mission, so your launch window is "whenever JWST is ready". omfg I can't wait for this thing to start operating.
I remember reading about this in the late 90s, when I was still getting the hang of the internet. Great that it's finally happening.