After a well-deserved day of rest, the team at Mission Control at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, got underway early today and proceeded with the tension-filled final deployment of the Webb telescope’s sunshield. Now, all five layers have been correctly positioned, and the spacecraft is over 60% of the way to her final orbit around L2.
The sunshield will keep the telescope and other necessary instruments at very cool temperatures, which are required since the telescope “sees” in the infrared range, and will pick up any heat signature. The hot side of the shield is about 59 C/ 138 F and the cool side is about -194C/-317F. This differential will change as the telescope settles into its orbit.
CNN reported, “’Unfolding Webb’s sunshield in space is an incredible milestone, crucial to the success of the mission,’ said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program director at NASA Headquarters, in a statement. ‘Thousands of parts had to work with precision for this marvel of engineering to fully unfurl. The team has accomplished an audacious feat with the complexity of this deployment — one of the boldest undertakings yet for Webb.’”
