NASA’s James Webb Observatory Begins Final Assembly and Testing at Northrup Grumman California Facility

The combined optical element and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope were removed from their specially designed shipping container, called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS), in a high bay at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, 2018. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   18 Mar 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has begun final assembly and testing at the Northrup Grumman spacecraft integration facility in Redondo Beach, California where the huge science instrument component and sunshield will be joined together.

California is Webb’s last assembly and testing spot before the completed telescope is shipped to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.

NASA is aiming for a spring 2019 launch target, but the date has not yet been determined pending the outcome of the final assembly and testing of the massive observatory at Northrup Grumman.

Engineers lift the combined optics and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope after removing it from the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, 2018. Webb’s science payload and spacecraft (which includes the sunshield that is also pictured here in its folded state) will be combined at Northrop before launch.  Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn

JWST is the largest, most powerful and most complex space telescope ever built. It will serve as the scientific successor to NASA’s world famous and phenomenally successful Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

It will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket, folded up like origami inside the nose  cone.

The science module is comprised of the science instruments, optical train, and the iconic and gigantic golden primary mirror measuring 6.5-meter (21.3-foot) in diameter.

The 18-segment gold coated primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is raised into vertical alignment in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 2, 2016. The secondary mirror mount booms are folded down into stowed for launch configuration.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The science module half of Webb is named OTIS which stands for optical telescope and integrated science instrument module.  

OTIS recently arrived at the Northrup Grumman Redondo Beach facility in California in February after successfully completing 9 months of cryogenic testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

It was flown on a U.S. military C-5 Charlie aircraft that departed Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, just outside of Johnson to Los Angeles International Airport and then trucked to Northrop Grumman.

OTIS was carefully transported from Texas to California packed inside the shipping container known as the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS).

For the first time the two halves of JWST now reside at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, where they will come together to form the complete observatory after years of   design, development, manufacturing and testing.

The science instrument module was assembled and tested at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, which this author saw and reported on the fully open golden mirror first hand. It was then shipped to Johnson for further cryogenic testing.  

“Extensive and rigorous testing prior to launch has proven effective in ensuring that NASA’s missions achieve their goals in space,” said Eric Smith, program director for Webb at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in a statement.  

“Webb is far along into its testing phase and has seen great success with the telescope and science instruments, which will deliver the spectacular results we anticipate.”

The sunshield of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sits deployed inside a cleanroom at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, in October 2017. Credits: Northrop Grumman

After the two halves are joined, the additional testing is required to insure that Webb’s extremely complicated unfolding and deployment process work as planned.

“These final tests at Northrop are critical to making sure the fully assembled observatory deploys and operates as expected in space. Deployment is the most critical part of Webb’s journey to L2. To reach space, the telescope must fold origami-style inside its Ariane 5 rocket for launch. Once in space and detached from the rocket’s payload adaptor, Webb will unfold its sunshield and deploy its mirrors, including its  high complex primary mirror.  It will be the first space telescope to complete such an intricate process.” 

“Opening Webb’s tennis court-sized, five-layered sunshield is one of the most technically challenging parts of deployment. The sunshield must delicately fold around the telescope for launch and then carefully open in space. Opening the sunshield requires that about 100 actuators, tiny motors that control the delicate motions of deployment, correctly fire. The sunshield must deploy successfully to ensure the mirrors and science instruments of Webb stay cold enough to be able to detect the extremely faint light of far-away planets, stars and galaxies.”

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer - ken at kenkremer.com

Engineers open the interior tent frame of the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, 2018, to reveal its precious cargo — the combined optics and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn