Journey of the Mirrors

The covers being removed from the hexagonal gold mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope. Two people in cleanroom “bunny” suits lay on diving boards over the mirror, which lays face pointed up, very carefully removing the covers one at a time. In this photo 6 covers have been removed, revealing the golden mirrors beneath. These are the 4 center line mirrors and two in the 4 and 5 o’clock positions. The two workers each hold part of another cover as they remove it. The worker on the right is reflected in the mirrors. Each of the black covers has a white sign on it noting which mirror segment it is. Each segment has a unique designation including A, B, or C and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 depending on its prescription and location.

A Cross-Country Journey of the Making of Webb's Mirrors

This interactive map traces the steps and path of Webb's mirrors as they go from raw material to liftoff making a cross country journey, visiting some states more than once, before travelling to South America for lift-off.

NOTE: This interactive works best on devices of about 800 pixel wide or larger.

ON LARGE DEVICES (>800px) : you will see an interactive map, information slides with embedded graphics and videos that tell the story. Swipe/click the slide arrows or click map locations to move through the story.

ON SMALLER DEVICES (<800px) : you will see an interactive map with numbers that track each step. Click the numbers for a popup that explains what occured at that location. NOTE: on very small devices (mobile phones in portrait mode) you may need to pan/scroll to see the relevant parts of the map.

DOWNLOAD: you can also download a four page flyer on the journey of the mirrors 4.5 MB .pdf

Interactive map and story of journey of Webb's mirrors