On November 29, the ‘Ariane 5’ rocket that will launch the James Webb Space Telescope was moved to the final assembly building at the European spaceport in French Guiana in order to prepare for the telescope to launch on December 22.
The bottom part of the Ariane 5 rocket is made up of the cryogenic main core (the main ‘Vulcain’ engine, oxygen and hydrogen tanks) two solid rocket boosters and the upper compound, including the cryogenic upper stage with the ‘HM7B’ engine and the oxygen and hydrogen tanks. In this way, all support structures will be able to interact with the telescope on its adapter.
A launch table was used to transport the Ariane 5 between the vehicle integration building and the final assembly building , in addition, the Webb telescope will be integrated into the top of the rocket.
Webb already has fuel for launch
The space telescope was powered into the payload preparation facility at the European spaceport in French Guiana prior to launch. Each tank was filled with 133 kg of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidant and 168 kg of hydrazine, likewise, the refueling lasted ten days .
When Webb is detached from Ariane 5, the telescope’s thrusters will make critical corrections to maintain its prescribed orbit approximately one and a half million kilometers from Earth , reorient the observatory, and manage its momentum during operations.
The next steps will be the ‘combined operations’ to prepare Webb and Ariane 5 as a single team , that is, they will place the telescope on top of the rocket to transfer it to the Final Assembly building in order to prepare the final details before launch.
