Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The L-30 (30 days til Launch) briefings on the James Webb Space Telescope's science goals.
Download: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14041
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support
Michael Starobin (KBRwyle): Lead Producer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Producer
The L-30 (30 days til Launch) briefings on the James Webb Space Telescope's science goals.
Download: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14041
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support
Michael Starobin (KBRwyle): Lead Producer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Producer
![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)
