What an unfortunate choice of word. Since this assembly was an objective toward the final goal, it should not be an “incredible” achievement. A list of better choices for the word would have included “expected,” “important,” “difficult,” “late,” “expensive,” “overpriced,” or even the phrase: “it’s about time, but almost certainly too late to achieve our desire to compare Webb data with simultaneous Hubble data.”

Huh. It looks like I have stopped being enthused about Webb. How sad is that moment when you realize that you have given up on a space probe.

The story is told of Admiral Rickover, who insisted on being on board the sea trials of every new nuclear sub. On one boat, there came a report that a shaft bearing was running hot and noisy. So he proceeded to the offending object, called for the diagrams, took a temperature reading, pulled out a stethoscope to listen and came up with the verdict. “There’s nothing wrong with this bearing, It’s operating as designed. It’s the design that’s the problem” (his exact language was much more forceful and seaman like)

I think what Bob means is “operates as intended”

The difference is subtle but important, as anyone who has ever wrestled with computer code has found out to their sorrow. The computer does exactly what you tell it to do, you’ve got to tell it to do the thing you want it to do.