The James Webb Space Telescope
is the largest space telescope ever built. It's tennis court
size sunshield, along with it's 21 foot 3 inch primary mirror
will enable Webb's instruments "see" back in time to when the first
stars and galaxies formed after the big bang more than
13 billions years ago. But. Webb's size is
too big to fit into any existing rocket, so it's designed to be
folded like origami, so it fits inside the almost
15 foot wide payload fairing of the very powerful
Ariane V rocket. Once in space
the Webb Telescope is slowly unfolded in a well choreographed sequence
of deployments. The solar panel is deployed first
to provide power. About 12 after after lift-off
Webb's thrusters are fired in what's called a mid-course correction
burn, to fine tune Webb's tragectory. About 24 hours
after lift-off, Webb's High Gain Antenna is deployed, enabling
communication with ground controllers. Webb is traveling
so fast, it passes the moon in about 2 days.
Here a second mid-course correct burn sets the spacecraft
on course toward it's orbital destination. On day
3. special pallets holding Webb's folded sunshield deploy
First the forward pallet, then the aft pallet
Webb's
central tower is extended, lifting Webb's telescope and
instrument package to it's operational location. Webb's
Momentum Flap is deployed. As the sun's solar pressure
pushes against Webb's large sunshield, this flap helps stabilize
the telescope. Special covers hold Webb's
tennis court size sunshield in place during lunch
these covers are now released, freeing the sunshield for deployment
The first of Webb's sunshield mid-booms deploys.
unfolding and extending one side of the 5-layer, Kapton
sunshield. Then, the second sunshield mid-boom
deploys.
Once both booms are fully deployed
the center rim is deployed and the sunshield is slowly tensioned.
This separated the 5 layers.
On the sun-facing side of the telescope, a radiator shade deploys
to protect Webb's spacecraft systems from the sun's heat
reflected off the sunshield. Near the 10-day mark,
the MIRI instrument's cryo cooler is started. It begins lowering
the MIRI instrument's temperature to about 6-degrees above Absolute Zero.
Controllers now begin
the process of deploying Web''s optics. Webb's Secondary
Mirror deploys first. Then an additional radiator panel
behind the telescope deploys. This helps remove more heat from the
spacecraft. About 12 days after launch, the first wing
of the Primary Mirror is rotated into place. A few days later,
the other mirror wing is rotated into place.
About 30 days after launch, another mid-course correction burn further tunes
Webb's course toward its final operational orbit. About
1 million miles away from Earth.
During the next several months, optics engineers using Webb's NIRCam
Instrument, will align and focus Webb's 18 Primary Mirror
segments, into a perfect, monolithic mirror.
It will take about 6 months before Webb is fully ready to capture its
first science image.
[beep beep]