The James Webb Telescope is now super cool (thanks to its new sunshield)

[smp]

From Art Technica:
"... As of late Tuesday morning, NASA and the telescope's primary contractor, Northrop Grumman, successfully stretched all five layers of the telescope's sunshield. This step completed the critical process of deploying the telescope's massive and essential sunshield, which keeps the telescope cold so that it can make delicate observations of faint objects. ..."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01 ... eployment/

Another complex step completed!

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[GCoyote]

So how many point failures are left before it becomes operational?

[smp]

A previous article stated:

"All told, from launch through commissioning, the Webb instrument must undergo 344 actions where a single-point failure could scuttle the telescope. Following sunshield deployment, Ochs said the Webb instrument will be through "70 to 75 percent" of these single-point failures."

And, that was before the sun shield tensioning, I believe.

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[WilliamPaolini]

The government and contractor PMs of that project are probably losing years of their lives given the stress they must be under during this deployment phase. Do not envy them one bit.

[GCoyote]

Very curious about the design process. I wonder how they settled on this plan versus assembly on orbit for instance.