Quote:
Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers
Maybe it would be better to understand what you think is happening.
They burn to eject earth orbit (which doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel the effects of earths gravity), with enough steam to carry the to their location (with correction burns factored in). It’s part of what takes so long. They can’t cruise there burnin the whole way and then burn retro to stop (the telescope can’t turn around, that would take a ton of extra fuel, also would likely need addition front facing boosters to complete, etc…). They utilize as much gravity slowing as they can.
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The bigger problem than fuel is that they can't turn JWST around because exposure to the sun would damage the instruments.