Researchers and engineers at NASA have been feverishly working on deploying one of the outfit’s largest projects ever and overnight, it successfully cleared its last major hurdle. The James Webb Telescope was launched to space last month and has been going through a series of deployments as NASA, the European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency work to get the telescope in working order. Saturday night, engineers with the project successfully extended both wings of the telescope’s primary mirror, latching them into place and preparing the telescope to take its first images in space.
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“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,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release distributed by agency.
He added, “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 $10 billion project still has a handful of minor adjustments to make before the telescope can deliver its first images, but NASA says all major hurdles have been cleared. Between now and this summer, the ground team at NASA HQ will position 18 mirror segments to align telescope optics. The process is expected to takes several months to complete, but the space agencies are expecting the first images to arrive at some point this summer.
“The successful completion of all of the Webb Space Telescope’s deployments is historic,” added 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.”
With the Webb Telescope in space, researchers will technically be allowed to look back in time, examining the light and images from the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Some scientists suggest the telescope could also eventually prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.
Cover photo by NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
