Mirror deployment is expected to begin in earnest Wednesday morning.
The timeline apparently changed as Tuesday wore on. During a news conference early Tuesday afternoon, for example, mission team members said mirror deployment likely wouldn't begin in earnest for a few more days.deployment systems lead at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said during the news conference."But then it runs for about 10 days. That whole mirror deployment is a 10-day period.
Webb's secondary mirror is so named because it's the second surface, after the primary, that light will hit on its way into the telescope's four science instruments. The 2.4-foot-wide secondary mirror sits at the end of several booms, which must be extended. The secondary mirror will be deployed first. That operation is preceded by heating up the motors that deploy the mirror structure — an activity that Stewart said would begin on Tuesday night.
"Following that, the next two days, we'll start heating [motors] in preparation for the wing mirror deployments," he said during Tuesday's news conference. Timeline shifts are not terribly surprising or concerning; team members have stressed repeatedly since the observatory's
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
James Webb space telescope engineers take extra time to ensure smooth sunshade deployIt will take two days to tension the sunshade, which is the size of a tennis court.
Read more »
Things are getting tense for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, literallyNASA has begun a multi-day process to tighten the tension on Webb's huge sunshield.
Read more »
James Webb Space Telescope is carrying out its most critical manoeuvreThe James Webb Space Telescope, which launched on Christmas day, is in the process of deploying its sunshield. If anything goes wrong, it could endanger its mission to observe the early universe
Read more »
The James Webb Space Telescope's road aheadAfter its Christmas Day launch, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has started to successfully deploy on the way to its perch 1 million miles from Earth.
Read more »
James Webb Space Telescope completes tricky sunshield deploymentThe James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed all five layers of its tennis-court-sized sunshield.
Read more »
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Is Successfully Stretching Its SunshieldAfter minor setbacks, the team behind NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is successfully deploying the telescope's massive sunshield.
Read more »