The James Webb telescope will be able to look back to the beginning of time. It will find the first galaxies and will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. Launch is scheduled for 2013.
"There's more than just one similarity between the web-slinging superhero and the James Webb telescope," said John Decker, Deputy Associate Director for the James Webb Space Telescope Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The sunshield on the spacecraft is actually shaped like a giant spider web, when you look at it from the top."
During the second week in May, visitors to the Nation's Capitol will be able to see the life-sized model of NASA's latest "superhero," and get a picture taken next to it. The model will be assembled on May 9, and will be on display through May 12 in front of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, Washington.
NASA and Northrop Grumman, the contractor who built the model, will set up information booths next to the model, where visitors can get information and educational materials, and speak with people who are involved in the project to build the real James Webb Space Telescope.
The full-scale telescope model was built to give the viewing public a better understanding of the size, scale and complexity of this breakthrough satellite. Specifically designed for an environment subject to gravity and weather, the model is constructed mainly of aluminum and steel, weighs 12,000 lbs., and is approximately 80 feet long, 40 feet wide and 40 feet tall. A specially manufactured material imported from France called "Ferrari Precontraint" allows the sunshield to 'breathe.' The model requires 2 trucks for shipping, and assembly takes a crew of 12 approximately four days.
The telescope model has been "Webb-slinging" since 2005 to Seattle, Wash.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Paris, France; Greenbelt, Md.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Orlando, Fla. Funds used to build this model were provided solely by Northrop Grumman.
The model display is part of "Public Service Recognition Week 2007," which runs from May 10 through 13. The theme of the week is "Safety, Science, Security, Technology." This annual national event is sponsored by the Council for Excellence in Government, Employees Roundtable, and it honors men and women who serve America in the Federal, state and local governments.
More than a year ahead of schedule, a team of independent experts has approved all ten new technologies developed for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Many of the technologies are revolutionary and have never before been used on any satellite or space telescope. The early approval can reduce the risk of increased costs and schedule delays before the program is approved for further development.
Wally Schirra, the only astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, has died. He was 84 years old.
Schirra's NASA career began with his selection as one of the original seven Mercury astronauts in 1959 and spans the period from Americas first tentative steps into space to the missions to the moon.
New Horizons spacecraft has provided new data on the Jupiter system, stunning scientists with never-before-seen perspectives of the giant planet's atmosphere, rings, moons and magnetosphere.
These new views include the closest look yet at the Earth-sized "Little Red Spot" storm churning materials through Jupiter's cloud tops; detailed images of small satellites herding dust and boulders through Jupiter's faint rings; and of volcanic eruptions and circular grooves on the planet's largest moons.
47 high school and college teams participated in NASA's 14th annual Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center April 13-14 in Huntsville, Ala.
The Huntsville Center for Technology was named champion of the high school division. The Rochester Institute of Technology team of Rochester, N.Y., rumbled to victory in the college division, overcoming not only the simulated lunar terrain, but also wet, stormy weather that interrupted the race several times throughout the day.
NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft, the first mission dedicated to the exploration of mysterious ice clouds that dot the edge of space in Earth's polar regions, successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 1:26 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, April 25.
The mission will study clouds that are noctilucent, meaning they can be seen from the ground only at night, when they are illuminated by sunlight no longer visible from the Earth's surface.