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A Mirror Milestone, Part 4

Here’s another update on the James Webb Space Telescope mirrors. In my last mirror blog I talked about the arrival of our flight secondary mirror, which is a pretty big deal, as there is only one on the telescope, and I hear it was a big challenge to manufacture. Along with the secondary mirror, the 3rd of our 18 primary flight mirror segments arrived at our cleanroom at NASA Goddard.

Here are some new photos.

The primary flight mirror segment being inspected:

Reflection in a Webb Telescope Mirror
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

After inspection, the cover of the canister is carefully lowered back over the mirror segment:


"Can Opener" for Webb Telescope Mirrors
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

The canisters are raised up to the balcony in the cleanroom for storage.


Webb Telescope Mirror Canisters
Credit: NASA/Desiree Stover

Eventually all 18 primary mirror segments will be assembled and mated to the backplane structure that will support them right here in our cleanroom. The big yellow structure will be used to support the backplane and mirrors and the robot arm in this photo (attached to a mass simulation of a mirror segment) will be what is used to position the them in place.


Primary Mirror Segment Assembly Alignment Installation Fixture
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

We also have this cool video snapshot of the mirrors arriving at our cleanroom, which will give you a nice behind-the-scenes view:



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