James Webb Space Telescope Successfully Deploys Major Components

The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully unfurled its tennis court-sized sunshield and secondary mirror.

Wednesday, January 05, 2022 at 03:05 PM ET

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The James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshield, seen here during its final deployment test on Earth in December 2020 at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. The five-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield is essential for protecting the telescope from heat, allowing Webb’s instruments to cool down to the extremely low temperatures necessary to carry out its science goals. [Photo: NASA/Chris Gunn]

Key Takeaways:

The James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed the critical, eight-day deployment of its tennis court-sized sunshield and secondary mirror.
These deployments are vital for the telescope's operation, especially the sunshield which maintains its instruments at an ultra-cold -370°F, with any single component failure risking the entire mission.
The next major step involves unfolding the primary mirrors, followed by several months of cooling and calibration before the telescope can begin sending images back to Earth.

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The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully unfurled its tennis court-sized sunshield and secondary mirror—a process that took eight days to complete—NASA confirmed on Tuesday.

Nearing the completion of its deployment, Webb successfully unfolded its secondary mirror—another important checkpoint for NASA’s mission. The secondary mirror serves as the centerpoint for Webb’s iconic gold-coated primary mirrors.