TO INFINITY

NASA’s Mega Telescope Is ‘Hunky-Dory’ Again After Fixing Two Issues

Ground controllers fixed a pair of problems preventing the James Webb Space Telescope’s huge sunshade from unfolding and tightening.

NASA’s shiny new space telescope has now completed the riskiest part of its mission yet, with the agency announcing Tuesday the full deployment of the craft’s 70-foot sunshield. The shield needed to be folded to fit into the rocket that carried the $10 billion James Webb telescope, the largest and most powerful ever launched, into space on Dec. 25. Before the shield could be unfurled and tightened, ground controllers grappled with a pair of problems hindering its deployment. Though the telescope was never in danger, staff had to reset its solar panel to draw more power. Flight controllers also had to repoint the telescope to limit sun exposure on six motors that were rapidly overheating. Only once the motors cooled could the sunshield be secured, NASA said. “Everything is hunky-dory and doing well now,” a lead engineer said. The tennis court-sized shade is vital for keeping the telescope stable enough that its infrared-sensing instruments can journey further into the cosmos to scan the universe for its earliest stars.