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You're absolutely right, my comment should have targeted the live launch, sorry.
Still, that covers about 20 (shaky cam) seconds of the launch before they switch to an animation (!) of the launch.
Which brings me back to my original gripe: The Ariane 5 is an old vehicle which doesn't have onboard cameras. Private rocket launch companies have eclipsed it. And I think The European Space Agency is not keeping up.
As to cameras on the JWST itself, it looks like they didn't attach any for a reason: https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-no-cameras-reason
Didn't know that...

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Your video, How The James Webb Space Telescope Works, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

It might help to start with what the Backplane Pathfinder actually is - it's a non-flight replica of the Webb telescope’s center backplane (that link has more info and pictures).

Chamber A allows simulating the cold environment the real telescope will face in space, and is the same vacuum chamber where Apollo spacecraft were tested.

Now, to answer your question: They are testing the test procedures for the real telescope! (source: NASA). I realise that doesn't exactly answer your question, but I haven't found details of the actual tests they plan to run... so as a distraction, here are some more images - http://jwst.nasa.gov/images_backplane.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_mirror_telescopes

Check that crap out, ferrofluid mirror potential! What I wonder is are the optical properties of liquid metal any good. For instance, they are using gold in the James Webb telescope because it reflects nearly all infrared light. What would the optical quality of these metals be? Sometime tells me polished glass structures would be both higher resolution and use materials that are optimized to reflect the spectrum you are interested in. The Wiki seems to indicate the real advantage isn't in the optical quality, but the relative inexpensive in creation. Much like paying a hooker for 5 years of polishing your nob, polishing a mirror is costly.

Dammit-all! It appears that Dr. James Webb is sporting a wedding band [sigh] ... just my rotten luck =o/

that's 7 years away though, and works almost exclusively in infrared. In fact the shortest wavelength it can detect is red, and that's the color with the longest wavelength, so from what I can tell it wont take very good natural color images of pretty galaxies. I imagine the scientists will be able to create spectacular virtual images from the data though.

>> ^Ryjkyj:

Eh... it's no James Webb...

Eh... it's no James Webb...

Ditto that - I definitely could have done without the "sexy android lady" voice.

>> ^NicoleBee:

arrrrgh at the presentation, but ooooh at the new tech.

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>> ^MaxWilder:
I love the end where they show off its specs like an unlockable weapon or vehicle in a video game.

they even used some of the same sounds as in terminator: future shock


i wonder if they'll shoot it straight to it's destination or park it on orbit for assembly first
being such a complicated and precise instrument, and knowing all the trouble we went through with hubble, i would think it dumb to launch it and just trust that it will work

I really shouldn't throw overbroad rhetorical bombs out there. I do think that the "use it or lose it" and "google bomb" initiatives are valuable in that they invite the media to cover things that would not otherwise be covered.

"Net roots" may yield results in 10-15 years, but there were no real accomplishments in 2004 and it doesn't look like progressives will make a leap forward in 2006. If Dems prevail in a few days, I think that you will see wins from Dems who act like Republicans but do not act like religious nutjob Republicans (i.e. James Webb in VA; Ben Cardin in MD; Lieberman in CT; Tester in MT).

The problem is that affluent white men and women aged 18-29 (the core of the net roots movement) are predominantly urban and have little connection or feel for rural areas. Merely Dean-dropping the kids into Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and the West will always be a recipe for disaster.

The ideological progressive purity demanded by the Kos and his ilk will only ever yield that intensely great and beautiful man, Dennis Kucinich. It will not produce a person who can ever hope to be elected on a nationwide basis.