Behind the Webb: Give Me Five (Episode 31, September 2016) @NASAWebbTelescope

Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

Release Date: September 23, 2016

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be looking at the universe with infrared vision. In order to optimally accomplish this mission, the observatory has to be kept as cold as possible. A carefully designed set of 5 coated layers of a special material called Kapton work together to enable the heat to be deflected from the telescope. This episode of Behind the Webb shows what the deployment of the sunshield and its layers looks like from the ground.

Credit: NASA, Mary Estacion (STScI)

Behind the Webb: Give Me Five (Episode 31, September 2016)

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