With The Majority of Preparation Complete, The Path Forward is Clear for Imaging by Year-End 2022

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has successfully completed the alignment of its multifaceted mirror system, completing a key stage of its preparations for use in the coming months. 

The Webb team announced completion of the fine phasing stage of preparation for the imaging systems, ensuring that no measurable contamination or blockage to the telescope's optical path have accumulated throughout its brief journey thus far. The team can now rest easy, reasonably assured that the complex system will deliver once the majority of its systems come fully online. 

While it has always been assumed that the satellite would successfully complete its setup protocols, each step of the process needed to unfold and align the complex array of focusing mirrors proved to be a nail-biter for engineers always expecting the next unforeseen "learning experience." Thankfully, the Webb team will remain un-edified, as the 21-foot primary array has successfully adjusted and focused itself to tolerances measured in nanometers. 

“In addition to enabling the incredible science that Webb will achieve, the teams that designed, built, tested, launched, and now operate this observatory have pioneered a new way to build space telescopes,” said Lee Feinberg, Webb's optical telescope element manager.

“We have fully aligned and focused the telescope on a star, and the performance is beating specifications. We are excited about what this means for science,” said Ritva Keski-Kuha, deputy optical telescope element manager. "We now know we have built the right telescope.” 

“More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA. “Today we can say that design is going to deliver.”

FMI: www.webb.nasa.gov