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A few hours from now, #JWST will make its Mid-Course Correction 2 (MCC-2) burn, injecting it into its operational orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point, ~1.5 million kilometres away.
What, why, how, when?!
A thread.
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What, why, how, when?!
A thread.
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First, a reminder: #JWST was launched on #Ariane5 #VA256 from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana on 25 December 2021. The #Ariane5 put it on a near-perfect trajectory towards L2 & two subsequent JWST Mid-Course Corrections have tweaked that.
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But why such a long journey to a place that's about four times further away from Earth than the Moon?
By contrast, the Hubble Space Telescope is in a low Earth orbit ~535km above the surface, making it accessible to several servicing missions over the past 31 years.
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By contrast, the Hubble Space Telescope is in a low Earth orbit ~535km above the surface, making it accessible to several servicing missions over the past 31 years.
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