At 18:17 UTC on January 8, 2022, the joint NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) successfully deployed the starboard wing of its massive 6.5-meter mirror \u2014 marking the end of the observatory\u2019s intense and critical deployment sequence.<\/p>\n
The feat capped an impressive series of engineering accomplishments, with all major critical deployments that could have ended the mission outright passing without major issue. Final mirror deployment followed the successful unfurling of the massive sunshield \u2014 a first-of-its-kind operation that saw Northrop Grumman\u2019s decades of work on the project come to fruition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
James Webb successfully launched atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket on December 25, 2021, from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. T+29 minutes after launch, the telescope successfully deployed its solar array four minutes ahead of schedule due to the near-perfect performance of the Ariane 5 rocket.<\/p>\n
The deployment accuracy of the Ariane 5 was so good that the amount of propellant remaining on JWST will allow the observatory to operate for nearly 20 years \u2014 10 years longer than originally expected.<\/p>\n
Three days after launch marked the beginning of the sunshield\u2019s deployment sequence with the deployment of the forward and aft Utilized Pallet Structures (UPS). JWST\u2019s sunshield is a mission-critical, 14.162 \u00d7 21.197 meter, five-layer membrane, used to cool the observatory and block the light and heat from the Sun.<\/p>\n
At T+5 days, the retraction of the sunshield covers occurred, exposing the five sunshield membrane layers to the harsh environment of space and setting up the most critical part of telescope\u2019s sunshield deployment sequence: mid-boom deployment and sunshield membrane tensioning.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n