What a sublime Christmas present, indeed. The solar array is providing sustainable power, as we await first confirmed receipt -- and successful execution -- of scheduled ground station radio commands.
The latest, then:
. . .Ground teams began receiving telemetry data from [the 'scope] about five minutes after launch. The Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket performed as expected, separating from the observatory 27 minutes into the flight. The observatory was released at an altitude of approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers).
Approximately 30 minutes after launch, [it] unfolded its solar array, and mission managers confirmed that the solar array was providing power to the observatory. After solar array deployment, mission operators will establish a communications link with the observatory via the Malindi ground station in Kenya, and ground control at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore will send the first commands to the spacecraft. . . .
This mission is poised to rewrite the known history of the cosmos. That is no exaggeration -- just a fact. Now go be merry! Woot-woot!
नमस्ते
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