Webb Telescope: in Kourou, Ariane 5 succeeds “the launch of the century”

Special envoy to Kourou,

Two minutes before launch, everyone suddenly holds their breath. The banter and laughter that punctuated the wait have given way to a heavy silence, almost as heavy as the thick cloud cover that covers the jungle of the Guyanese Space Center. It’s a moment all of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) teams have been waiting for with a mixture of impatience and trepidation. Even if the Ariane 5 rocket has an almost insolent success rate of 98%, a launch is never trivial. Especially when the payload cost 12 billion dollars and mobilized more than 40 million hours of human labor. Hidden under the cap of the launcher, folded like an origami, the imposing machine seems very vulnerable on this giant firecracker. The final count is unbreathable.

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Then suddenly, a smoke appears in the distance, 5 km from the observation site closest to the launch pad where we are with a hundred other spectators. The Vulcain engine ignited. It takes another 7 seconds before the gigantic powder boosters flanking the rocket ignite in a glowing light. The 700-ton juggernaut then takes off in front of a hundred spectators who begin to applaud and scream with excitement. A way to exorcise anguish too, perhaps.

As the rocket quickly disappears into the clouds, the sound finally reaches us in a crackling din. This metallic thunder gives goose bumps. Some scientists involved in the mission are struggling to hold back their emotion. Some cry, discreetly. Many are flabbergasted by the power of the spectacle. Then the noise gradually fades and everyone goes to the large screens installed to follow the entire course of the flight. The most spectacular part is over, but the launch is actually far from over. Ejection of the fairing, separation of the first stage, ignition of the second, separation of the satellite: it was only 27 minutes after take-off that the launcher’s mission ended.

Extraordinary mission

In the Jupiter control room, the explosion of joy matches the pressure that was on the teams. For Arianespace and the European Space Agency, which were responsible for “launch of the centuryThe relief was obviously enormous, just as the pressure was on their shoulders. NASA nonetheless invested nearly 11 billion dollars in this extraordinary mission (Canada and Europe having contributed to the remaining billion). “We are still waiting for the data, but the injection seems almost perfect», Commented Stéphane Israël, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, with a big smile.

On the NASA side, of course, the joy is shared. “It’s awesome, really amazing», Applauded Thomas Zurbuchen, scientific director and associate administrator of the American space agency, during the post-launch conference in Kourou. “It’s really Christmas, with the presents and everything. This luminous trail of the rocket pulling away from Earth’s gravity is always something special. And this image of the Webb telescope separating from the second floor will be etched in my memory forever.“

This is obviously only the beginning of the adventure for the telescope. JWST must now return to its working orbit, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. For that, he will have to turn on his thrusters during the night from Saturday to Sunday in order to reach the very precise speed necessary to reach this position in a month. But above all, it must be deployed along the way, in particular its gigantic heat shield, the size of a tennis court, considered by all to be the most critical part of the operations which lie ahead in the coming weeks.

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Finally, it will be necessary to wait six months in total for the entire telescope to be operational and to be able to produce the sublime images that can be expected and for scientific observations to start. Among the main objectives: to detect the first galaxies in the universe and to study the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets.