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Planning and Execution of the Three Mid-Course Correction Maneuvers for the James Webb Space Telescope

September 28, 2022

How were the JWST’s mid-course correction maneuvers developed?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was successfully launched on December 25, 2021 12:20 UTC on an Ariane 5 rocket out of Kourou, French Guiana on a direct, lower energy manifold transfer out to the Sun-Earth-Moon (SEM) L2 point. Three mid-course correction (MCC) maneuvers, designated MCC-1, MCC-1b, and MCC-2, were required to provide the energy necessary to reach L2 due to a purposeful biasing down of the launch vehicle. This paper will document the prelaunch preparation, nominal planning, contingency preparation, and successful execution of the three mid-course correction maneuvers.

Introduction

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) successfully launched on December 25, 2021 12:20 UTC on an Ariane 5 rocket out of Kourou, French Guiana on a direct, low-energy manifold out to the Sun Earth-Moon (SEM) L2 point. The injection state targeted by the launch vehicle was purposely biased lower than the required value to reach L2 to prevent the observatory from having to remove energy from the orbit during the transfer out to L2. Due to the mission requirements and primary thruster orientation during the transfer phase of the mission, the observatory is unable to remove energy from the orbit necessitating biasing of the launch vehicle injection state below the optimal value. The final injection into the science orbit was broken down into a series of three mid-course correction (MCC) maneuvers designated MCC-1a, MCC-1b, and MCC-2. The three maneuvers were nominally scheduled for execution at launch + 12.5 hours, launch + 2.5 days, and launch + 29 days, respectively. An example of the three-maneuver sequence in the rotating libration point (RLP) frame XY plane is visible in Figure 1.1

MCC-1a, nominally executed at launch + 12.5 hours, was the most important of the three-maneuver sequence as most of the energy required to reach SEM L2 is performed during this maneuver. As such, a great deal of work was performed to ensure the successful execution of MCC1a. MCC-1b, nominally executed at launch + 2.5 days, is a smaller statistical clean up maneuver. MCC-2, nominally executed at launch + 29 days, is the final mid-course correction to provide the remainder of the energy to enter the long-term science orbit. This paper will document the prelaunch preparation, nominal planning, contingency preparation, and successful execution of the three mid-course correction maneuvers.

 

 

Sample JWST trajectory in the RLP-XY plane with the locations of the three MCC maneuvers.

Figure 1. Sample JWST trajectory in the RLP-XY plane with the locations of the three MCC maneuvers.

Click the image below to download the white paper.

References
1 Stringer, B., Rashied, T., Petersen, J., Richon, K., “Mid-Course Correction Contingency Analysis for the James Webb
Space Telescope”, AAS 19-816.
2 Roberts, C., “Long Term Missions at the Sun-Earth Libration Point L1: ACE, SOHO, and WIND”, AAS 11-485.
3 Brown, J., Petersen, J., “Applying Dynamical Systems Theory to Optimize Libration Point Orbit Stationkeeping Maneuvers
for WIND”, AIAA 2014-4304.
4 Petersen, J., “L2 Station Keeping Maneuver Strategy for the James Webb Space Telescope”, AAS 19-806.
5 Small, J., Stoker-Spirt, E., Kaushik, A., Yu, C., Logan, J., Nicholson, A., Yu, W., “Orbit Determination for the James Webb Space Telescope During Launch and Early Orbit”, 2022 AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference,
Charlotte, NC, August 7-10, 2022. AAS-22-607.
6 Yu, W., Rashied, T., Santacroce, T., Stringer, B., Lorah, J., “JWST Real-Time Mid-Course Correction Maneuver Monitoring Contingency Preparation”, 2022 AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Charlotte, NC, August
7-10, 2022. AAS-22-635.
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