James Web Space telescope is a space telescope being jointly developed by NASA, the European Space agency and Canadian space agency. It is in preparation for launch and ground teams have successfully completed the delicate operation of loading James Webb Space Telescope with propellant it will use in Space.
It is prescribed to orbit 1 million miles from Earth. Webb was built with total of 12 rocket thrusters. These rocket thrusters use either hydrazine fuel or a special mixture of hydrazine fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. To safely handle the extremely toxic propellants Webb was moved to fueling section of Ariane payload preparation facility at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It was a ten day procedure began on November 25.
Webb’s spacecraft bus was built by Northrop Grumman. It was filled with 369 pounds of hydrazine fuel and 292 pounds of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. Combined operations between Arianespace and NASA teams preparing Webb and its Ariane 5 rocket are not set to begin. The next large milestones for the joint teams will be to move Webb to Final Assembly Buildings. After the assembly the full stack of rocket and payload its mobile launch platform will be rolled out of BAF to the launch pad, two days before its scheduled December 22 launch.