14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the American space agency are proud to announce that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just passed a Spacecraft Critical Design Review (SCDR). This assessment was a major milestone for the development team in 2014, but the telescope has passed it with flying colors.
The SCDR investigated aspects related to the power, communications and pointing control systems on NASA's next flagship telescope. When JWST launched, beyond 2018, it will be the most advanced, largest, and most expensive space telescope ever constructed and orbited.
The successful passing of the SCDR marks an important moment in the development history of the foldable telescope. NASA experts say that this event marked the last design review for the project. All future reviews will be on actual spacecraft components and their performances.
“This is the last major element-level critical design review of the program. What that means is all of the designs are complete for the Webb and there are no major designs left to do,” explains NASA Goddard Space Flight Center expert Richard Lynch, who manages the JWST spacecraft bus for NASA.
The SCDR went on for almost an entire week, and was carried out by an impartial team of independent experts. Numerous discussions saw all major issues related to the telescope's operations covered, and NASA now feels very comfortable going forward.
“While the spacecraft that carries the science payload for Webb may not be as glamorous as the telescope, it's the heart that enables the whole mission,” explains the acting program director and program scientist for the Webb Telescope at NASA Headquarters, Eric Smith.
“By providing many services including telescope pointing and communication with Earth, the spacecraft is our high tech infrastructure empowering scientific discovery,” the top NASA official says.
The design and development effort for the entire JWST effort is led by engineers at the Redondo Beach, California-based Northrop Grumman Corporation. “Our […] team has worked exceptionally hard to meet this critical milestone on an accelerated schedule, following the replan,” comments company VP Scott Willoughby.
“This is a huge step forward in our progress toward completion of the Webb Telescope,” concludes the official, who is also the manager of the JWST project at Northrop.