The NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission successfully launched on December 25, 2021, at 12:20 UTC. This paper details several novel challenges encountered in the orbit determination (OD) of JWST during the launch and early orbit. The first OD solution used only 6.5 hours of tracking data, much less than the 24 hours of data usually required for libration orbiters on an outbound trajectory. In addition, the observatory area exposed to solar radiation pressure changed through a series of sunshield deployments while concurrent momentum unloads and attitude telemetry outages occurred. This paper covers how the Flight Dynamics Team (FDT) prepared for these challenges, how these challenges were handled on-orbit, and the performance of the resulting OD solutions.
Orbit Determination For The James Webb Space Telescope During Launch And Early Orbit
2022 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 2022 ; Charlotte, North Carolina, US
Miscellaneous
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English
James Webb Space Telescope Orbit Determination Analysis
NTRS | 2014
|James Webb Space Telescope Orbit Determination Analysis
NTRS | 2014
|James Webb Space Telescope Orbit Determination Analysis
NTIS | 2014
|