A Critical Design Review has been accomplished for the spacecraft, which will carry NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to its orbit up to 1 million miles from Earth.
The design review has been implemented on the structure facilitating Webb's data link to NASA's ground station. Northrop Grumman has received the contract from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt for designing and developing sunshield, telescope, and spacecraft.
The Webb spacecraft is all set for designing. The spacecraft’s communications sustains structure stows and supports the communications antenna while being folded for launch. While being unfolded in space, the telescope’s antenna is released and targets NASA's Deep Space Network, and sends data to scientists around the world.
The solar array, another spacecraft structure, has achieved its preliminary design audit and progresses into the detailed design phase. The spacecraft's solar array powers the science instruments, computers, and communications equipment for the entire telescope. The solar array is the first component to be used soon after the telescope is separated from the launch vehicle and performance of this solar array is critical. Power supply is vital for science mission.
Inspired by Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope has been developed to be the state-of-art space observatory. It will serve as the most powerful space telescope. Webb is ideal for viewing distant objects in the universe; images of the very first galaxies can be obtained in addition to observing planets around distant stars.
The Webb Telescope is a joint project of Canadian Space Agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency.
Source: http://www.northropgrumman.com/