By Natalie Perlin and David Larter Four Employees Share Their Experience Shaping the Webb Launch By transforming our understanding of the universe and our place in it, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has the potential to change the course of humankind. Webb has already transformed the lives of many Northrop Grumman employees who worked […]
Stories and reflections on building the largest, most complex telescope in history from employees at Northrop Grumman. […]
Thanks to weights, pulleys and other forms of ground support equipment, Northrop Grumman engineers can mimic the weightlessness of zero G. […]
Northrop Grumman engineers combined digital modeling with physical testing to predict how the James Webb Space Telescope — the world’s largest telescope — will perform in space. […]
The backplane of James Webb Space Telescope will hold the weight of more than 5,300 pounds of optics and instruments — while staying calm in a cold environment. […]
Mei-Li joined Northrop Grumman in 2016 as an intern. Today, she’s a mechanical design engineer on the James Webb Space Telescope, working on the mechanical ground systems engineering team. Tell us about your role on Webb. My team is in charge of designing all of the Webb equipment that’s not going to space, called mechanical […]
While the payload of a space launch garners the most attention, it’s the spacecraft bus that carries and supports every aspect of the mission for the life of that craft. […]
Cryocoolers are machines that keep sensors extremely cold so that satellites and space telescopes can take pictures on long-term missions. Whether we’re looking back toward Earth or outward into deep space, the sensors that capture images require extremely low temperatures. […]
Imagine having to squeeze an enormous mirror and a sunshield that’s the size of a tennis court into a rocket ship. This is the reality of an intricate deployment process engineers have incorporated into the construction of the James Webb Space Telescope. […]