Pieces Are Falling Off Of James Webb Space Telescope

JWST suffers new problem during spacecraft testing, Space News

"In a presentation at a meeting of the National Academies' Space Studies Board here May 3, Greg Robinson, the JWST program director at NASA Headquarters, said some "screws and washers" appear to have come off the spacecraft during recent environmental testing at a Northrop Grumman facility in Southern California. Technicians found the items after the spacecraft element of JWST, which includes the bus and sunshield but not its optics and instruments, was moved last weekend from one chamber for acoustics tests to another to prepare for vibration testing. "Right now we believe that all of this hardware - we're talking screws and washers here - come from the sunshield cover," he said. "We're looking at what this really means and what is the recovery plan." The problem, he said, was only a couple of days old, and he had few additional details about the problem. "It's not terrible news, but it's not good news, either," he said."

Keith's note: "It's not terrible news?" Really, Northrop Grumman? The spacecraft was designed such that every part was included for a reason, yes? If the parts are falling out during routine ground handling that means something went wrong. After how many years of delays and billions in cost over runs, Northrop Grumman can't even keep bolts properly tightened on the spacecraft?

from NASA Watch https://ift.tt/2FHUta0
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