Webb sunshield deployment test
Date: 11 October 2019
Satellite: Webb
Copyright: NASA/Chris Gunn
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) after a successful sunshield deployment test at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California.
After successfully assembling the entire observatory, technicians and engineers moved on to fully deploy and tension all five layers of its tennis court sized sunshield, which is designed to keep its optics and sensors in the shade and away from interference.
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. As part of its contribution to the project, ESA provides the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, the Ariane 5 launcher, and staff to support mission operations at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, USA.
