The James Webb Space Telescope has strict limits on its propellant lifetime.
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Official mission sources and documentation report that the James Webb Space Telescope relies on onboard propellant for trajectory adjustments and station-keeping, which constrains its operational lifespan.
ESA - Precise Ariane 5 launch likely to extend Webb's expected lifetime
After a successful launch of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope on 25 December, and completion of two mid-course correction manoeuvres, the Webb team has analysed its initial trajectory and determined the observatory should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year lifetime (the minimum baseline for the mission is five years).
Webb’s precise launch on an ESA-provided Ariane 5 rocket was performed by Arianespace on behalf of ESA from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
The analysis shows that less propellant than originally planned is needed to correct Webb’s trajectory toward its final orbit around the second Lagrange point known as L2, a point of gravitational balance on the far side of Earth away from the Sun. Consequently, Webb will have much more than the baseline estimate of propellant – though many factors could ultimately affect Webb’s duration of operation.
Webb has rocket propellant on board not only for midcourse correction and insertion into orbit around L2, but also for three necessary functions during the life of the m
NASA Says Webb’s Excess Fuel Likely to Extend its Lifetime Expectations - NASA Science
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# NASA Says Webb’s Excess Fuel Likely to Extend its Lifetime Expectations
After a successful launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Dec. 25, and completion of two mid-course correction maneuvers, the Webb team has analyzed its initial trajectory and determined the observatory should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime. (The minimum baseline for the mission is five years.)
The analysis shows that less propellant than originally planned for is needed to correct Webb’s trajectory toward its final orbit around the second Lagrange point known as L2, a point of gravitational balance on the far side of Earth away from the Sun. Consequently, Webb will have much more than the baseline estimate of propellant – though many factors could ultimately affect Webb’s duration of operation.
Webb has rocket propellant onboard not only for midcourse correction and insertion into orbit around L2, but also for necessary functions during the li
All hail the Ariane 5 rocket, which doubled the Webb telescope’s lifetime - Ars Technica
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There were two stunningly good pieces of news about the James Webb Space Telescope this past weekend. One was widely reported—that after an intricate, two-week process, the telescope completed its deployment without any difficulties. The next steps toward science operations are more conventional.
The other piece of news, less well-covered but still important, emerged during a news conference on Saturday. NASA’s Mission Systems Engineer for the Webb telescope, Mike Menzel, said the agency had completed its analysis of how much “extra” fuel remained on board the telescope. Roughly speaking, Menzel said, Webb has enough propellant on board for 20 years of life.
This is twice the conservative pre-launch estimate for Webb’s lifetime of a decade, and it largely comes down to the performance of the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on a precise trajectory on Christmas Day.
Prior to launch, the telescope was fueled with 240 liters of hydrazine f
# James Webb telescope; limits to propellant lifetime?
Tags: fuel, station-keeping, halo-orbit, james-webb-telescope
- Score: 18
- Views: 5070
- Answers: 2
- Answered: yes
- Asked by: Roger Wood (4046 rep)
- Asked: 2021-10-10
- Edited: 2021-10-11
- Site: space
## Question
There is a comprehensive article on Wikipedia on the James Webb telescope. It includes a statement regarding the operational lifetime being nominally five years and optimistically ten years. However the two following statements still seem contradictory.
"JWST needs to use propellant to maintain its halo orbit around L2, which provides an upper limit to its designed lifetime, and it is being designed to carry enough for ten years.[141]"
versus later in the same article...
"This requires some station-keeping: around 2–4 m/s per year[144] from the total budget of 150 m/s.[145]"
The latter statement sounds more like 40 years of fuel!
Maybe the fuel is also used for some other purposes like initially entering the halo orbit or for attitude control, etc.?
## Answers
### Answer by user12102 (score: 23 [ACCEPTED])
For some background see
this answer to Could JWST stay at L2 "forever"?
this answer to What happens
Everything we examined (4)
This check searched the claim as stated. It did not run a separate search for evidence against it.