Crews unload the James Webb Space Telescope’s “backplane,” which was flown aboard a Lockheed C-5 airplane to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The lightweight backplane, the primary backbone of the massive space imager, is a composite structure designed to 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. Built and assembled by ATK of Magna, Utah, under contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. of West Falls Church, Va., the backplane is set to undergo cryogenic testing in September in the X-ray and Cryogenic Test Facility at Marshall. It will be launched to space in 2018.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton