NASA's Webb Telescope reaches major milestone as mirror unfolds

Date:
January 8, 2022
Source:
NASA
Summary:
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope team fully deployed its 21-foot,
gold- coated primary mirror, successfully completing the final
stage of all major spacecraft deployments to prepare for science
operations.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== NASA's James Webb Space Telescope team fully deployed its 21-foot,
gold-coated primary mirror, successfully completing the final stage of
all major spacecraft deployments to prepare for science operations.


==========================================================================
A joint effort with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space
Agency, the Webb mission will explore every phase of cosmic history --
from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in
the early universe.

"Today, NASA achieved another engineering milestone decades in the making.

While the journey is not complete, I join the Webb team in breathing a
little easier and imagining the future breakthroughs bound to inspire
the world," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "The James Webb Space Telescope is an unprecedented mission that is on the precipice of seeing
the light from the first galaxies and discovering the mysteries of our universe. Each feat already achieved and future accomplishment is a
testament to the thousands of innovators who poured their life's passion
into this mission." The two wings of Webb's primary mirror had been
folded to fit inside the nose cone of an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket
prior to launch. After more than a week of other critical spacecraft deployments, the Webb team began remotely unfolding the hexagonal segments
of the primary mirror, the largest ever launched into space. This was
a multi-day process, with the first side deployed Jan. 7 and the second
Jan. 8.

Mission Operations Center ground control at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore began deploying the second side panel of the mirror
at 8:53 a.m. EST. Once it extended and latched into position at 1:17
p.m. EST, the team declared all major deployments successfully completed.

The world's largest and most complex space science telescope will now
begin moving its 18 primary mirror segments to align the telescope
optics. The ground team will command 126 actuators on the backsides of
the segments to flex each mirror -- an alignment that will take months
to complete. Then the team will calibrate the science instruments prior
to delivering Webb's first images this summer.

"I am so proud of the team -- spanning continents and decades -- that
delivered this first-of-its kind achievement," said Thomas Zurbuchen,
associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate in NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Webb's successful deployment exemplifies
the best of what NASA has to offer: the willingness to attempt bold
and challenging things in the name of discoveries still unknown."
Soon, Webb will also undergo a third mid-course correction burn -- one
of three planned to place the telescope precisely in orbit around the
second Lagrange point, commonly known as L2, nearly 1 million miles from
Earth. This is Webb's final orbital position, where its sunshield will
protect it from light from the Sun, Earth, and Moon that could interfere
with observations of infrared light.

Webb is designed to peer back over 13.5 billion years to capture infrared
light from celestial objects, with much higher resolution than ever
before, and to study our own solar system as well as distant worlds.

"The successful completion of all of the Webb Space Telescope's
deployments is historic," said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb program director
at NASA Headquarters. "This is the first time a NASA-led mission has ever attempted to complete a complex sequence to unfold an observatory in space
-- a remarkable feat for our team, NASA, and the world." NASA's Science Mission Directorate oversees the mission. NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the project for the agency and
oversees the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and
other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including Johnson Space Center in Houston,
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, and others.

For more information about the Webb
mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/webb ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by NASA. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


==========================================================================


Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220108142711.htm
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