With JWST being so far out there, how do they know it reached the correct location and made it into stable orbit? What are they measuring/referencing to verify it’s where it needs to be?
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It’s in constant radio communication with Earth.
From the radio signal alone we can get a good estimate of its location and distance from Earth.
But in addition, James Webb is making its own measurements of its position, orientation, and velocity relative to the Earth and the Sun using a variety of sensors, and transmitting that data back. That information can all be correlated with what we can observe independently to give us an even more accurate estimate.
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