Now a half-million miles and 6 days outbound from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope began the most critical phase of its initial activation, unfolding a fragile five-layer sunshield the size of a tennis court that's essential to its mission.
The deployment of the first boom was held up several hours to give engineers time to make sure the protective covers had, in fact, rolled off to the side of the sunshade pallets as required.
Engineers then sent commands to deploy the second sunshade boom, which extended smoothly and locked in place at 10:13 p.m., finally giving Webb its iconic kite-like shape."Today is an example of why we continue to say that we don't think our deployment schedule might change, but that we expect it to change," said Keith Parrish, the observatory manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Simply extending the sunshade is not enough for Webb to meet its science goals. For the shield to work properly, blocking out heat from the sun, its five layers must be pulled taut and separated.
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