NASA James Webb Space Telescope Finally Opens Its Golden Eye In Final Major Hurdle

NASA James Webb Space Telescope has finished its two-week deployment phase. The optical instrument successfully unfolded its massive, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror panel in preparation to investigate every phase of cosmic history.

Engineers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, erupted in applause as NASA reported on Twitter that the 21-foot (6.5 meters) mirror's final section had been deployed.

The $10 billion Webb Space Telescope, more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, will survey the sky for light pouring from the earliest stars and galaxies created 13.7 billion years ago. To do so, Al Jazeera said NASA had to equip Webb with the largest and most sensitive mirror ever launched, dubbed the "golden eye" by scientists.

James Webb Space Telescope Opens Golden Eye

The Associated Press (via Los Angeles Times) said flight controllers in Baltimore started unfolding the left side of the main mirror like a drop-leaf table on Friday. The mood went light on Saturday. The staff listened to joyful music as the right half was snapped into place in the control room.

After hearing there was a "deployed telescope on orbit" 2.5 hours later, the Goddard control crew rejoiced and cautiously exchanged high-fives (despite coronavirus precautions owing to the continuing epidemic) after hearing there was a "deployed telescope on orbit." The controllers returned to work immediately after applauding, locking everything down.

The primary mirror on Webb's desk is composed of beryllium, light yet solid and cold-resistant metal. Each of the 18 segments is coated in an ultra-thin coating of gold that reflects infrared light very well. In the next two weeks, NASA engineers will recalibrate the hexagonal, coffee-table-size portions of the mirrors so that astronomers can gaze as one on stars, galaxies, and exoplanets that may have atmospheric evidence of life.

JWST Undergoes 50 Major Deployments

According to NASA (via Space.com), the telescope had to go through 50 main deployment events, comprising 178 release mechanisms, all of which had to operate flawlessly for the telescope to be successful. Those activities went smoothly.

The telescope is still on its way to its "parking space" at the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2), which is around 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) distant from our planet. Webb will need to test its equipment and position its mirrors in the following weeks, among other significant milestones.

The 18 individual hexagon-shaped mirrors that makeup Webb's gold-plated primary mirror face will take at least five months to calibrate and position. The observatory will only be ready to take its first photographs of outer space after that.

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