First Couple of JWST Mirrors Reach NASA

A shipment sent by Boulder, Colorado-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), in Greenbelt, Maryland, containing two of the 18 main mirror segments to be installed on the James Webb Space Telescope, has finally reached its destination.

Engineers at the company packed the two mirror segments in specially designed, protective enclosures, and sent them on their merry way on September 17. The shipment arrived at NASA on September 24.

Over the next 12 months, Ball Aerospace will complete delivery of the remaining 16 mirror segments. All of them will be sent in pairs to the GSFC, where they will be thoroughly inspected upon arrival.

After they pass reception tests, the mirrors will be stored in a NASA clean room, awaiting integration with the JWST backplane structure, in 2015. The telescope is scheduled to launch in 2018.