Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA’s largest and most complex space science telescope ever built. Too big for any rocket available in its fully expanded form, the entire observatory was designed to fold in on itself to achieve a much smaller configuration. Once in space, the observatory will unfold and stretch itself out in a carefully practiced series of steps before beginning to make groundbreaking observations of the cosmos.

Read more about how Webb was successfully folded and stowed at Northrop Grumman: go.nasa.gov/2WSRDKd

Image credit: NASA Goddard