Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Helium is the element with the lowest boiling point. Find out how the James Webb Space Telescope uses this special element to stay cool in the latest episode of Elements of Webb.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Producer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Writer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Editor
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Videographer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Editor
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Videographer
Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Videographer
Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Production Assistant
Duncan Wiles: Videographer
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Lead Technical Support
Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Lead Animator
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator
Bailee DesRocher (USRA): Animator
Jacquelyn DeMink (USRA): Animator
Krystofer Kim (KBRwyle): Animator
Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator
Michael Lentz (KBRwyle): Animator
Download this video:
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14011
Helium is the element with the lowest boiling point. Find out how the James Webb Space Telescope uses this special element to stay cool in the latest episode of Elements of Webb.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Producer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Writer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Editor
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Videographer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Editor
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Videographer
Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Videographer
Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Production Assistant
Duncan Wiles: Videographer
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Lead Technical Support
Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Lead Animator
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator
Bailee DesRocher (USRA): Animator
Jacquelyn DeMink (USRA): Animator
Krystofer Kim (KBRwyle): Animator
Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator
Michael Lentz (KBRwyle): Animator
Download this video:
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14011


![Social Media Short: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Assembly & Sunshield Deployment
This time-lapse video reveals NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now a fully assembled observatory, and is accomplishing large-scale deployments and movements that it will perform while in space.
In 2019, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope celebrated the full mechanical [https://go.nasa.gov/2znr2JV] and electrical assembly of the world’s largest, most powerful space science observatory ever built. Meaning that Webb’s two halves have been physically put together and its wiring harnesses and electrical interfaces have been connected.
Following assembly, the Webb team moved on to successfully send deployment and tensioning commands to all five layers of its sunshield [https://go.nasa.gov/2J9pfgM], which is designed to protect the observatorys mirrors and scientific instruments from light and heat, primarily from the Sun.
Ensuring mission success for an observatory of this scale and complexity is a challenging endeavor. All of the telescope’s major components have been tested individually through simulated environments they would encounter during launch, and while orbiting a million miles away from Earth. Now that Webb is fully assembled, it must meet rigorous observatory-level standards. The complete spacecraft reacts and performs differently to testing environments than when its components are tested individually.
“This has been an amazing journey to get here. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now one complete assembly, and known to be the most powerful space telescope ever created by humankind,” said Mark Voyton, Webb Observatory Integration and Testing, and OTIS Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
This minute-long video was created by NASA Goddard videographers and filmed over a period of time at Northrop Grumman’s clean room in Redondo Beach, California.
Following Webb’s successful sunshield deployment and tensioning test, team members have nearly finished the long process of perfectly folding the sunshield back into its stowed position for flight, which occupies a much smaller space than when it is fully deployed. Then, the observatory will be subjected to comprehensive electrical tests and one more set of mechanical tests that emulate the launch acoustic and vibration environment, followed by one final deployment and stowing cycle on the ground, before its flight into space. The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch in 2021.
Download this video: https://go.nasa.gov/2I12QkB
Video Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Videographer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Videographer
Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Video Editor Social Media Short: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Assembly & Sunshield Deployment](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zwC5kgE2Psc/mqdefault.jpg)
