The deployment in space not only of its mirrors but also from its thermal shield, earlier this week, was an ultra-dangerous procedure, which had never been done in the past.
Le Monde with AFP
The James-Webb spatial telescope has successfully completed, Saturday, January 8, the last stage of its deployment, with that of its main mirror. It is now in its final configuration to begin, in a little over five months, its exploration of the cosmos.
The emblematic main mirror of the telescope measures about 6.5 meters in diameter, and was too big to enter as much in a rocket during his take-off, two weeks ago. Two sides had thus had to be folded backwards.
The first of these two wings was deployed Friday, and the second was opened on Saturday morning, as planned, announced NASA. However, the teams of the space agency continued to lock it, in order to secure it definitively. “I am moved,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, head of the NASA scientific missions. What an extraordinary step. “NASA retransmitate Saturday morning the images of the control room, where dozens of engineers applauded to L ‘Announcement of the full deployment of the telescope, which is piloted from Baltimore, on the American coast.
The Mirror Are in Place Now! An amazing @nasawebb milestone with @northropgrumman manager scott willoughby … https://t.co/pgu0kaywe5
Scientific instruments still need to cool
The deployment in the space of such a telescope, not only of its mirrors but also its thermal shield earlier this week, was an ultra-dangerous procedure that had never been realized in the past. The mission now seems very good of success.
Before being operational, however, the telescope will still have to reach its final orbit at 1.5 million kilometers from the earth, and the scientific instruments will have to continue to cool before being very precisely calibrated.
The most powerful space observatory ever designed, including James-Webb must make it possible to observe the first galaxies, formed about 200 million years after the Big Bang.