March 12, 2010 | 21 comments

6 Fun Facts about the James Webb Space Telescope [Slide Show]

The mammoth infrared observatory, scheduled to launch in 2014, will look back to the first stars in the universe

By John Matson   

 
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ORBITAL ORIGAMI

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be a giant—its multilayered sun shield stretches 22 meters, nearly twice the length of the Hubble Space Telescope. In order to fit inside the aerodynamic payload capsule on top of an Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, both JWST's sun shield and 6.5-meter mirror will be meticulously folded—its planned deployment in space looks like nothing so much as a butterfly unfurling from its cocoon. The photograph above shows a full-scale model of JWST with telescope team members at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

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