Image: James Webb telescope sunshield
Description: NASA: The Sunshield on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the largest part of the observatory—five layers of thin membrane that must unfurl reliably in space to precise tolerances. Last week, for the first time, engineers stacked and unfurled a full-sized test unit of the Sunshield and it worked perfectly. The Sunshield is about the length of a tennis court, and will be folded up like an umbrella around the Webb telescope’s mirrors and instruments during launch. Once it reaches its orbit, the Webb telescope will receive a command from Earth to unfold, and separate the Sunshield's five layers into their precisely stacked arrangement with its kite-like shape. The Sunshield test unit was stacked and expanded at a cleanroom in the Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California.
Title: James Webb telescope sunshield
Credit: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasas-webb-sunshield-stacks-up-to-test/#.U9PIrfldXJZ
Author: Chris Gunn - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No
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