The primary mirror is 21.3-foot in diameter. NASA/Chris Gunn
The James Webb Space Telescope is looking for focus in space just weeks after launch.
Engineers are beginning alignment procedures for the mirror. The work will eventually get these individual reflectors working as a single focusing device, NASA officials wrote in a post on Wednesday.
The procedure began with engineers commanding 132 actuators that will move and position the primary mirror segments and the secondary mirror, just to make sure everything was responded to as expected. The team made sure that the steering mirror was used during the image stabilization process.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope mission is live.
The Christmas launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
The observatory team will work for 10 days to move the mirror segments out of their launch alignments.
The telescope's ambitious agenda of telling us more about the early universe and the life history of various objects that are a part of it will be essential if all of the pieces are working as a single observatory in space.
The alignment will take about three months and should be done by mid-April, according to NASA. Thanks to the precision of the launch, there is enough fuel for 20 years of science, but that depends on the mirrors working properly.
NASA said that ground teams have begun instructing the primary mirror segments and secondary mirror to move from their stowed-for-launch configuration. Engineers can begin the three-month process of aligning the segments to perform as a single mirror after ten days of movements.
A parking spot called Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2) is almost a million miles away from our planet. The engine will be fired on Jan. 23 to get to that zone.
The next-generation telescope will begin a series of early science programs this summer, including studying exoplanets and probing the beginning of the universe.
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