The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) satellite now officially has its ride. GOES-T was transported from Astrotech's Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida, to United Launch Alliance's (ULA) nearby Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41. It was then mated to the top …
Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb's mirrors. After …
This week, as the Webb team continues to make progress in aligning the telescope, other successful activities include the calibration of the NIRISS filter wheel and pupil wheel tuning for NIRCam. There are hundreds of activities like these planned during the commissioning process, and each is as important as the next to ensure that Webb …
By Abby Graf Imagine the feeling of flying on an airplane. Smooth sailing, clear skies, not a cloud in sight. It's a relaxing ride that many take for work or recreational travel. Now imagine flying through clouds, with the turbulence of different intensities. While some sink and hold onto their seats, others view it like …
The Webb team continues to make progress in aligning the observatory's mirrors. Engineers have completed the first stage in this process, called "Segment Image Identification." The resulting image shows that the team has moved each of Webb's 18 primary mirror segments to bring 18 unfocused copies of a single star into a planned hexagonal formation. …
After starting the mirror alignment with Webb's first detection of starlight in the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the telescope team is hard at work on the next steps for commissioning the telescope. To make more progress, the team needs to use another instrument, the Fine Guidance Sensor, to lock onto a guide star and keep the …
By Jim Cawley NASA's Kennedy Space Center Now safely encapsulated, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) satellite has completed another key milestone in preparation for its March 1, 2022, launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility in nearby Titusville, the two …
Lee esta nota en español aquí. The James Webb Space Telescope is nearing completion of the first phase of the months-long process of aligning the observatory's primary mirror using the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument. The team's challenge was twofold: confirm that NIRCam was ready to collect light from celestial objects, and then identify starlight from …
While we have started the long process of aligning the telescope mirrors, almost all of the components on Webb's cold side are still continuing to cool. Webb's giant sunshield keeps the telescope and cameras out of both direct sunlight and sunlight that is reflected from Earth and the Moon. Everything on the cold side of …
by Sofie Bates Andrew Janiszeski and Troy Zaremba blow up a weather balloon in a dark hotel lobby. The weather was calm last night when they drove into Plymouth, Massachusetts, but this morning a blizzard is raging outside. Snow is piling up in the hotel parking lot, wind gusts are near 70mph, and the power …
