Ball Aerospace designed, built and tested the James Webb Space Telescope’s optical system, which provides the telescope’s powerful vision. The signature 18 hexagonal gold-plated mirrors will come together to form one large mirror, making it the largest mirror ever flown in space. The provide adequate “viewing”, the mirrors need to be kept super cold, as in -370 degrees. The James Webb Telescope will orbit around the sun, one million miles away from earth, at what is called the second Lagrange (L2) point. This is an ideal location for an infrared observatory and will offer a view of our universe never seen before. Astronauts cannot visit the Webb telescope, (as done with the Hubble Telescope), so precision in design, testing and more testing, along with global collaboration were needed to assure the Webb’s successful operation. This technological marvel will be able to see just about anything in the sky. However, it has one overriding objective-to see the light coming from the very first stars of the universe.
Kristy said the next telescope will be named after a woman and will be called the Roman Space Telescope- the next development at Ball Aerospace.