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NASA Marshall Space Flight Center—A Most Crucial Supporting Role For Hubble (Satellite)

[SatNews] The backplane support for the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror has arrived safely in Huntsville, Alabama.

The backplane is the backbone of the telescope, supporting the craft’s 18 beryllium mirrors, instruments and other elements while the telescope is looking into deep space. The Webb Telescope is the world’s next-generation space observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.


An artistic impression completed in August of 2013 of the James Webb Space Telescope, courtesy of Northrop Grumman.

To prepare the telescope for the extreme temperatures of space, engineers at the facility have carefully examined the telescope’s mirrors inside a vacuum chamber that simulates the hypercold of space, chilling the hardware from room temperature down to a frigid minus 414 degrees Fahrenheit. The backplane is the latest and final piece of the telescope to undergo this extreme conditioning at the Marshall Center.


This x-ray diagram of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows where the backplane support frame (BSF) is in relation to the whole observatory. The BSF is the backbone of the observatory, is the primary load carrying structure for launch, and holds the science instruments.
Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman
The X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at the Marshall Center is the world’s largest X-ray telescope test facility and offers a unique, cryogenic, clean-room optical test environment. Cryogenic testing will take place in a 7,600-cubic-foot, helium-cooled vacuum chamber, chilling the Webb support structure from room temperature to simulate the frigid atmosphere of space. While the structure changes temperature, test engineers will precisely measure its structural stability to ensure it will perform as designed in the extreme temperatures of space.

The cryogenic testing is targeted to begin in September.