Beyond the fact that the telescope seems to have followed commands from mission controllers to a T, the launch itself and two subsequent engine burns were so efficient that the Webb did not expend very much fuel to get where it is going. The extra fuel will prolong the lifetime of the telescope by years, well beyond its official 10-year target.
“We doubled the mission life. The budget was for 10 years. With this new estimate, we’re about 20-plus years,” Durning said.
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Fantastic!
Great news.
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Yup, that’s the money quote right there lol. 
This just popped up on my Facebook feed today:
I can hardly wait.
The cameras are on!
https://www.scientiststudy.com/2022/02/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-turns.html?utm_campaign=Science%20%26%20Space&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwAR2LM5-wy0WPf7BXJQkOfldwEXCiYYNqmKcZCZBhdCy54bQHewybjmqKhxw
The artist’s rendition is all wrong though … Webb is being bombarded with solar radiation in that pic.
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Is it soup yet?
I just read that it will take weeks to cool to final temp. They control the cooling with heaters apparently. All the various parts gotta cool in the right order and right speed.
Cool and informative video;
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NASA actually used an exclamation point on the newest bit of news.
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While studying the atmospheres of exoplanets for things like oxygen and methane that may be clues to life, it may turn out that searching for signs of air pollution is the key to finding extraterrestrial life.
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Jesus…ruin good news about the scope with their propaganda BS.
Someone needs a nap.
Finding atmospheric compounds that don’t occur in nature could simply be the most effective way to find technologically advanced civilizations. Why you gotta politicize it?
LOL libs already politicized it…oh the irony in your posts.
Politicized the search for extraterrestrial life? No, you did that right in this previously apolitical thread.
How does one distinguish atmospheric pollution from the natural atmosphere when you don’t know what the natural atmosphere consists of?
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Just because they don’t occur naturally here does not necessarily mean they are not natural elsewhere.
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The mirrors are aligned! Let the observation begin!
Well, almost ready to begin.
“Over the next six weeks, the team will proceed through the remaining alignment steps before final science instrument preparations. The team will further align the telescope to include the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, Mid-Infrared Instrument, and Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph. In this phase of the process, an algorithm will evaluate the performance of each instrument and then calculate the final corrections needed to achieve a well-aligned telescope across all science instruments. Following this, Webb’s final alignment step will begin, and the team will adjust any small, residual positioning errors in the mirror segments.”
But it’s going great!
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