In August 2014, at their +Northrop Grumman facilities in Redondo Beach, California engineers successfully stacked and unfurled the five layers of the largest part of the observatory: the massive sunshield.
The successful unfurling was the first time this had been done and everything 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.
Please join +Tony Darnell Dr +Alberto Conti and +Scott Lewis as they discuss the test conducted last Summer with engineers and scientists at Northrup Grumman and +NASA Goddard as well as the details of the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope.
As always, we look forward to your questions and comments as well, see you then!
For more information:
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasas-webb-sunshield-stacks-up-to-test/#.VCWjJ-ecbJM