Webb and Origami

Webb is the largest telescope ever placed in space; 100 times more powerful than Hubble. So big it had to fold origami-style to fit in the rocket and unfolded like a "Transformer" in space. Learn about how Webb folds and unfolds with this activity where you will fold an origami model of Webb's primary mirror out of a single piece of paper.

Montage or Webb (JWST) in it's folded and stowed launch configuration inside the nose cone of an Ariane 5 rocket.
Engineers Prep James Webb Telescope for Integration
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Completes Environmental Testing

ACTIVITY: Webb Mirror Origami

For the James Webb Space Telescope to fit into a rocket, it must fold up. Whether it is the primary mirror or the sunshield, many parts of Webb are designed to deploy or unfold once in space. This origami activity highlights the complexity and elegance of Webb's folding design.

Images Of Webb Folding/Unfolding

FOlding Element

Primary Mirror

FOlding Element

18 Mirror Segments

Entire Mirror

21.5 ft (6.5m)

Mirror Segments

4.3 ft (1.32m)

Instructions

Origami is art of folding paper into two or three dimensional objects. This origami pattern of the Webb primary mirror will get you thinking about the complexity of folding and unfolding 3 dimensional objects and give you some appreciation for how Webb's 18 individual mirror segments come together to form a single very large mirror.

Fold this origami pattern to make your own version of the James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror! The dark blue lines indicate "mountain" (upward) folds, magenta dashed lines indicate "valley" (downward) folds. For best results, please use at least a 16” image.

Download Origami Template

Credit

Robert J. Lang (Origami)

More About Webb's Primary Mirrors

Note the subtle curve of the origami mirror as you fold it together. Webb's 18 individual mirror segments come together to form a single overall curved mirror. Each of Webb's individual mirror segments has curvarture as well which is adjusted to form the complete mirror curve and focus to an incredibily high degree of accuracy. All of this delicate and precise equipment was built, aligned, tested and verified on earth. It was then folded, transported across oceans, placed on a rocket, launched into space, unfolded and precisely realigned to within 1/10000 the width of a human hair in space - an incredible feat of engineering. Learn more on our mirrors page.

Related Webb Content

Webb's pirmary mrror isn't the only part that folds for launch and deploys in space. Other major folding subsystems include the sunshield (the size of a tennis court) and its support structures, the secondary mirror assembly, the solar array and more.

View of the template of an origami pattern shaped with the 18 hexagon mirror layout of the Webb telescope.
View of the template of the Webb mirror origami pattern.
Example of a front view of the Webb Mirror Origami showing the 18 gold Webb hexagon mirror segments with a black hexagon in the middle.
Example of a front view of the Webb Mirror Origami.
Example of a back view of the Webb Mirror Origami showing many of the hexagon shaped segments interlocked.
Example of a back view of the Webb Mirror Origami.

Folding and Unfolding Webb

Images Of Webb Folding

This series of images at various stages of Webb's development and testing illustrates how Webb was designed to fold for launch.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope combined science instruments and optical element
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, or Webb, emerged from Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Dec. 1, 2017. The telescope's combined science instruments and optical element exited the massive thermal vacuum testing chamber after about 100 days of cryogenic testing inside it.
NASA/Chris Gunn
James Webb Space Telescope Assembled Observatory Full Mirror Deployment Test
What’s the best way to make a really powerful telescope? Build a big mirror! The James Webb Space Telescope has the largest mirror of its kind that NASA has ever built.
NASA/Chris Gunn
An engineer looks up at the James Webb Space Telescope's Folding MIrrors
In a recent test, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed its primary mirror into the same configuration it will have when in space.
Engineers Prep James Webb Telescope for Integration
This image was taken at Northrop Grumman. The optical portion of the telescope is complete, seen here, and is being prepared for integration onto the spacecraft element. Currently the spacecraft element which includes Webb’s enormous sunshield is in testing.
NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA’s Webb Sunshield Successfully Unfolds and Tensions in Final Tests
A fully assembled Webb Telescope, propped by support structures, takes up the space inside the Northrop Grumman cleanroom. In the center of the image is the telescope’s gold-coated, hexagonal mirror, which is folded back on either side. Underneath the mirror is the sunshield structure. The sunshield is made up of five thin kite-shaped layers, each constructed out of material that largely looks like silver foil. Three technicians, each wearing white contamination-controlled gear, can be seen on orange cranes around the telescope. One technician is in the foreground, one in the mid-ground, and one in the background. A dark blue line runs along the top of the white walls of the room. The ceiling of the room is also white.
NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Has Been Assembled for the First Time
The most powerful and complex space telescope ever created by humankind has achieved its final form as a fully assembled observatory. Reaching a major milestone, technicians and engineers have successfully connected the two halves of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for the first time at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Redondo Beach, California.
NASA/Chris Gunn
This image shows the James Webb Space Telescope atop its launch vehicle
James Webb Space Telescope on Launcher
NASA/Chris Gunn
Webb is encapsulated in its rocket fairing
On Friday 17 December, the Ariane 5 rocket fairing was closed around the James Webb Space Telescope. This protective fairing, or ‘nose cone’, will shield the telescope during liftoff and its journey through the atmosphere on 24 December.
ESA/CNES/Arianespace
Montage or Webb (JWST) in it's folded and stowed launch configuration inside the nose cone of an Ariane 5 rocket.
Montage or Webb (JWST) in it's folded and stowed launch configuration inside the nose cone of an Ariane 5 rocket.
Illustration credit Courtesy of ArianeSpace.com. Photo credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG-OV.

Webb Deployment (unfolding) Video

Featured Video

Webb's Deployment

Webb began unfolding very shortly after launch when the solar array deployed and began supplying power to the spacecraft. On its nearly 1 million mile journey from Earth to L2 orbit Webb unfolded, cooled down to its extremely cold operating temperatures, and went through the process of commissioning. During the commissioning phase, all of it's subsystems and instruments were gradually turned on, tested and calibrated before it began to return its science data in July of 2022.

Featured Video

29 Days on the Edge

This Webby Award nominated video captures the harrowing 29 days following liftoff. Thousands of parts must work correctly, in sequence, to unfold Webb and put it in its final configuration, all while it flies through the expanse of space alone, to a destination nearly one million miles away.

Learn More