Game Changer Part III: Triumph

Scott Willoughby knew it was a tough blow for the team.

In the Spring of 2018, questions from the media, Congress and the science community swirled around NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope program. The headlines weren’t kind.

And, so, as Northrop Grumman’s Webb program manager, Willoughby judged he needed to address the situation with his people.

The trouble started with an environmental test on Webb’s spacecraft element (the integrated bus and sunshield) performed at Northrop Grumman’s Space Park campus in Redondo Beach, California. The test ensured Webb could withstand the intense noise of a rocket launch. While nearly everything on the spacecraft performed magnificently, technicians discovered on the ground around the spacecraft a handful of screws and related hardware that had come loose from covers used to secure the sunshield membranes inside the rocket fairing during launch.

The failure resulted from a deliberate choice by engineers to try and prevent the ends of screws protruding through their locking nuts – generally the measure that a screw is fully engaged – from snagging or tearing the fragile sunshield membranes during deployment. The failure of just a few pieces of hardware meant the whole solution needed to be reworked and redesigned. It took time and delayed Webb’s launch date. For Willoughby’s team, it was a body-blow.

“I got them together and told them: ‘I can’t tell you not to read the news,’” Willoughby recalled. “‘Read it but take it in stride. Because every single human in this room is doing something harder than has ever been attempted before.

“‘We’re going to take this and we’re going to learn, but what we know is we can’t fail on orbit. So, find your way of dealing with adversity – whatever that is – and come back and be proud. We’re going to fix it. Webb is going to work.’”