NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is three days into its deployment, and it still has three days to go.
On Christmas Day, the $10 billion Webb launched to look for heat signals from the early universe. The observatory's instruments must be kept very cold to pick up faint signals.
If all goes according to plan, the five-layer structure will reflect sunlight and heat extremely efficiently, allowing the "cold side" of the building to remain at a minus 373 degrees Fahrenheit. The observatory's sun-facing "hot side" will be around 230 degrees F, according to NASA officials.
The James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures.
The sun shield is 69.5 feet long by 46.5 feet wide. That's too large to fit inside the payload fairing of a currently operational rocket, so the structure lifted off in a highly compact configuration and must now unfurl in space.
The operation is very complex and involves many different steps.
"Webb's sun shield assembly includes 140 release mechanisms, approximately 70 hinge assembly, eight deployment motors, bearings, springs, gears, about 400 pulleys and 90 cables totaling 1,312 feet 400 m," said the engineer.
"All this to keep the sun shield under control as it unfolds," said Puga, who works for the company that is the prime contractor for the mission.
The sun shield structure was put on two pallets on Tuesday. The Deployable Tower Assembly was extended on Wednesday, which created room for the sun shield membranes to unfurl.
The cover that protected the sun shield was released and the "aft momentum flap" was deployed, which will help the observatory maintain its orientation and position without using too much fuel.
If the observatory is not properly balanced, the solar pressure on the sun shield will cause rotation of the observatory, according to Alise Fisher, a NASA public affairs specialist. The observatory will be kept steady by the pressure of these photons.
You can follow the deployment action here. The five sun shield membranes will be unfurled on Friday by extending two booms. Mission team members will get the membranes up to their proper tension over the weekend, which could lead to sun shield deployment as early as Sunday.
The focus will then shift to the primary and secondary mirrors, which are scheduled to be deployed by January 7.
The timelines are flexible and stressed by NASA officials. If the observatory doesn't seem to be hitting its marks exactly, don't panic, because some steps may take longer than anticipated.
We should all take a moment to wish the mission team good luck on the steps that are left.
In "29 days on the Edge," a NASA engineer said that the observatory has 50 major deployment and 178 release mechanisms.
Menzel said that every single one of them must work. "Unfolding Webb is hands-down the most complicated activity we have ever done."
The Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), also known as the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1, is a spot 930,000 miles from our planet where the deployment steps are occurring. The observatory will get there in 29 days after launch.
As soon as the universe arrives, it won't be long before he starts observing it. It will take about five more months to align the 18 segments of the telescope's primary mirror and calibrate its four scientific instruments. Science operations are expected to start in June or July of 2022.
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