JWST Activity

1 A A Tale of CELESTIAL Two Halves Game Changer By Omar Torres and Caroline Briselli

or almost a quarter century, helps protect the telescope from multiple stages of movement and F some of the brightest minds the sun’s heat. deployment Webb will perform in at Northrop Grumman have space, the team got right down to been quietly perfecting an In October 2019, the sunshield was business. engineering marvel that promises deployed, layer by layer, into the “If you stand there long same position it will take when it is to change our understanding of 5. Choreography on Point enough when the sunshield is the universe, ushering in the next a million miles from Earth. For Webb to deploy its sunshield generation of space exploration. fully tensioned and open, it’s like “If you stand there long enough and activate its cooling systems Able to peer 13.5 billion years when the sunshield is fully in space, the deployable tower the sunshield is breathing.” into the past in its search for alien tensioned and open, it’s like the assembly must extend 48 inches worlds, the James Webb Space sunshield is breathing, as the upward, creating a gap between Telescope is gearing up for its layers slowly move up and down Webb’s massive gold-coated —REMY VERDEILLE home stretch to launch. together due to small changes to beryllium mirror and sunshield. Engineer air pressure,” said Remy Verdeille, To orchestrate this delicate 1. Tale of Two Halves an engineer on Webb. operation, the team spent months On August 23, 2019, months of preparing for a test that would preparation coalesced into a 3. A Mirror Like No Other only last several hours. nail-biting day as the teams The world’s next great space working on the optical telescope observatory requires a primary 6. Systems a Go and the spacecraft bus carefully mirror larger than any space When you’re working on the joined them together — lifting the telescope in history — its largest, most technically complex telescope over the spacecraft unprecedented size enabled by and powerful space telescope bus, then slowly, painstakingly honeycomb-like sections that, ever built, testing is the name of lowering it. when deployed, will fit together the game. 2 The result was the historic full to create one full mirror. Mega For the first time as an integrated Sunshield integration of the James Webb In March, the team deployed and fully assembled observatory, Space Telescope (Webb), as well the wings of the mirror — the Webb underwent a comprehen- as the integration of the formerly first mirror deployment since the sive systems evaluation to assess separate optical telescope and observatory was fully assembled. its electronic performance as a spacecraft bus teams. fully connected vehicle. 4. Launch Realness: 2. Mega Sunshield: “I’ve always loved space and Inside a Rocket A Herculean Effort how infinite of a frontier it is,” said To launch into space, Webb’s As an infrared telescope, Webb Dillon Wessing, principal systems tennis court–sized sunshield and must be kept incredibly cold to test engineer on Webb. “As a kid primary mirror — six times the ensure that its own heat doesn’t it was all about the Hubble. I now size of Hubble’s — must be interfere with its ability to detect have an opportunity to work on folded inside the Ariane 5 rocket. small changes in temperature at the next generation and see Webb take our discoveries to the edges of the universe. Hence, To command and test the the next level.” the monumental importance of software systems and hardware the five-layer sunshield, which components that simulate the

3 A Mirror LikeNo Other

Choreography on Point 5

4 Launch Realness

6 Systems a Go

3 SUMMER 2020 4