NASA had never attempted such a complicated deployment before, and there were hundreds of ways that the process could go wrong. If an important part became stuck—really, truly stuck—NASA would have to face the painful reality of abandoning its brand-new, $10 billion mission. Over the past two weeks, Webb’s stewards have worked nearly nonstop, trading 12-hour shifts, checking and rechecking data as hundreds of little mechanisms clicked into action.
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The release of Webb’s diamond-shaped sun shield, the cover that will protect the observatory’s mirrors and instruments from our star’s glare, was undoubtedly the most stressful part. The five-tiered shield is the size of a tennis court, and each layer is made of material as thin as a human hair. Engineers had warned, in the days before launch, that this sun shield, floppy and unpredictable, could snag and potentially doom the whole mission. But earlier this week, each layer snapped into its final position, just as engineers had imagined. “We’ve nailed it,” Alphonso Stewart, Webb’s deployment systems lead, told reporters after it happened. And then this morning (8th Jan), engineers completed the last big “has to work” moment, moving the telescope’s mirrors into their final honeycomb shape.
The private programs have shown us that space exploration isn't just a thing that NASA or other great powers can do. That's the really positive issue with them.Seems like costs don't matter for Musk. The guy wants to move to Mars and die there, together with his girlfriend. Something has gone horribly wrong on Earth! — Raymond
dumb luck — Wayfarer
What's your avatar about? A tear in a building? — Raymond
the Hubble produced thousands of iconic and spectacular images, if the JW is tuned to infra-red radiation, will it be producing images that are visually meaningful — Wayfarer
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