Day 13: Mirror, Mirror – First Wing Unfolds
Today the port side of Webb’s mirror was successfully unfolded. After a motor moved the wing into position, it took ...
Day 11: We have a telescope!
Today’s excitement came directly from the NASA livestream of the Mission Operations Center at Space Telescope Science Institute during the ...
Day 10: Sunshield Deployment Complete!
From an engineering perspective, Webb’s sunshield was one of the most difficult challenges to overcome in building the telescope. Unlike ...
Day 9: A Pause, and then Sunshield Tensioning Begins
The year 2021 ended for the Webb Telescope in a nominal way. “Nominal” is spacecraft lingo for “everything is going ...
Day 6: Sunshield Booms begin to deploy
Today saw the beginning of one of the most difficult Webb deployments so far, the sunshield rollout. The Webb telescope ...
Day 5: Webb’s Aft Momentum Flap and Sunshield Covers Deployed
The Webb team at the Mission Operations Center (MOC) at Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland started the ...
Day 4: Science Operation not limited by fuel; Webb’s Tower Extends
Because of its picture-perfect launch, Webb used less fuel than anticipated for its mid-course correction burns. Less fuel burned now ...
Day 3: Webb Sunshield Starts to Unfold
Unitized Pallet Structures (UPS) unfold. These two pallets (one forward and the other aft) hold the folded sunshield layers. The ...
Launch to Day 2
Webb already passed several milestones since its spectacular launch last Saturday. It separated from the Ariane 5 rocket, unfolded its ...
Webb Begins its Journey on ESA’s Ariane 5 Rocket!
Today, the James Webb Space Telescope successfully blasted off from the European Space Agency’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana ...
Why will it take six months to see JWST’s first science images?
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is ready for launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. More ...
STScI: NASA’s Webb Will Join Forces with the Event Horizon Telescope to Reveal the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
to create an image of the area directly surrounding the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way ...
