The James Webb Space Telescope’s “backplane” — its primary backbone structure — arrived Aug. 22 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., carried aboard a Lockheed C-5 aircraft. The composite backplane structure, set to undergo cryogenic testing in September in the Marshall Center’s state-of-the-art X-ray and Cryogenic Test Facility, is extremely lightweight. It will keep the 21-foot-diameter primary mirror nearly motionless while the orbiting telescope peers into deep space, observing some of the oldest, most distant stars, galaxies and other objects in the cosmos. The telescope was built and assembled by ATK of Magna, Utah, under contract to Northrop Grumman Corp., headquartered in West Falls Church, Va. It is set to launch to space in 2018.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton