The mission operations team of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was happy as the observatory unfolded its final mirror segments into place to complete its deployment in January of 2022. The image is from NASA/Bill Ingalls.
After two weeks of working to get the telescope deployed, the James Webb Space Telescope team had much to celebrate this holiday season, from a Christmas Day launch through working through Eastern Orthodox holidays.
The end of the most complicated telescope deployment performed in space was marked by the unfurling of the giant mirror on Saturday. The issues that arose after the observatory's launch were minor and far less than what they were simulations, according to the project manager.
"Everyone is doing well," he said. Everyone is excited at this point. We're on an incredible high right now, and I don't think there was a single point during the last two weeks where anyone felt down.
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The telescope had to push through 50 major deployment events, including 178 release mechanisms that had to work perfectly for the telescope's ultimate success.
The control team filmed by NASA Television during deployment on Saturday cheered and exchanged high-fives after hearing there was a "deployed telescope on orbit."
The telescope is still on its way to its "parking spot" at the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2, which is about 1.5 million kilometers away from our planet. In the coming weeks, it will be necessary to test out its instruments and align its mirrors.
It will take at least five months to calibrate and align the 18 individual mirrors that make up the primary mirror face. The observatory will only be able to take its first images after that.
It's not downhill from here. The mission's difficulty in the future weeks is all kind of a level playing field. The mirror was an obstacle for the team to overcome.
He said that the mirror deployment was the highest risk part of the mission.
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