14 DAY TRIAL // The James Webb space telescope has a big history behind it, and it hasn't even been launched yet. In fact, it's years from being ready to take to the skies.
But NASA is working on it, putting through their paces the various components that will eventually make up the most powerful space telescope ever built.
In the latest video depicting Webb's journey from concept to space-faring scientific instrument, NASA explains how the craft was integrity-tested in the world's largest centrifuge at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Only a portion of the telescope was tested, but it's a very important one – ISM, the structure that holds Webb's four main instruments.
The telescope, like any other craft headed for space, has to withstand the forces generated by a rocket launch. Once operational in space, the James Webb telescope won't experience anything comparable to the shocks during launch, but it has to get there first.