NASA Says Space Debris Will Definitely Slam Into the James Webb Space Telescope

The agency's science administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is fully deployed, and that is a reason to celebrate.

The massive space observatory is not out of the woods yet. The team says that an impact is likely as it spins around the Sun in a chaotic path.

Some small impacts from micrometeorites will happen, according to a NASA scientist. There will be some damage to the mirrors of the telescope over the course of the mission.

The telescope is vulnerable, but the team believes it will be able to survive some damage.

Julie Van Campen, a NASA engineer, said that a piece of debris could hit it. That broke a mirror.

She said there was not much protection. What you see is what you get.

Van Campen said there would be at least four more layers to keep the shield together if a micrometeor ripped a tear into it.

She said that it was part of their lifetime calculations.

There is no way to actually service the observatory in person, so things could get hairy for the team back on the ground. The Hubble Space Telescope was visited by the Space Shuttle five times between 1993 and 2009.

Hubble was operating in a cluttered low-Earth orbit. The location of the JWST allows it to form a straight line with the Earth and Sun.

Thaller said that it is a nice place to be when it comes to space junk.

Engineers have thought ahead and built in some additional protections. The telescope's mirrors are designed to take some damage, so that it doesn't stop its scientific endeavors.

The goal of having the JWST last for at least ten years is ambitious, but it is limited by the amount of fuel the telescope needs to keep itself in motion.

The pressure is off for now. Engineers pulled off a huge feat with the telescope's unfolding, a harrowing process that involves hundreds of steps.

Extra precautions are being taken, but space debris and meteorites will always be a threat.

NASA thinks space junk will hit the James Webb Space Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope has begun unfolding its huge golden mirror.

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