NASAs Webb project supervisor Bill Ochs, Northrop Grummans automobile engineering lead Amy Lo, and NASAs Webb program director Greg Robinson provided more information about Webbs very first week in space and upcoming releases in this teleconference held earlier today.
Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
The Webb objective operations group started the very first steps in the process of tensioning the very first layer of Webbs sunshield this morning around 10 a.m. EST
. It will take the team 2 to 3 days to stress the five-layer sunshield. The plan for today is to focus on the first layer, the largest and the one closest to the Sun.
This important step in the observatorys complex sequence of deployments resumed after Webb objective supervisors paused release operations on Saturday to enable team rest, and then again on Sunday to make modifications to Webbs power subsystem and to change the observatorys attitude to reduce the temperature level of the motors that drive the tensioning procedure.
By NASA
January 3, 2022
