NASA tests giant 21-foot mirror on James Webb telescope for the first time in simulated zero-gravity

NASA is inching forward with its plans to launch a successor to the Hubble space telescope.

In an unprecedented step, NASA tested a giant 21-foot mirror on its James Webb space telescope that is designed to observe a range of frequencies not currently seen by Hubble. 

In the test, NASA simulated some of the conditions the telescope will encounter in space, including zero-gravity, with the mirror – which is actually 18 hexagonal mirrors segments – fully unfurled.

Named after the second administrator of NASA, the replacement flagship telescope (pictured) has also run well over its enormous $8 billion budget

While the latest test marks a step forward for the craft, the telescope has long-been delayed and over-budget.

A Government Accountability Office report released earlier this year casted doubt on whether NASA will be able to meet a launch date slated for 2021.

In its report, the agency says that technical problems with the telescope’s primary contractor, Northrop Grumman, give the telescope a 12 percent chance of meeting its slated launch of March next year.

The telescope will most likely, according to the GAO, launch about six months later in July of 2021.

Among the issues backing up the launch  are critical components of the instrument’s construction like the bolts used by Northrop Grumman, some of which did not meet strength requirements and would need to be replaced.

Other issues included problems with flaps meant to stabilize the observatory and misfiring actuators that could lead to a complete failure of the telescope’s mission objectives.

The instrument, billed as a successor to NASA’s Hubble Telescope, has been in development for more than a decade and has until recently alluded firm launch dates.   

‘Now estimated to cost $9.7 billion, the project’s costs have increased by 95 percent and its launch date has been delayed by over 6.5 years since its cost and schedule baselines were established in 2009,’ wrote the GAO.

James Webb is set to replace Hubble as NASA’s flagship telescope when it launches in 2021 and looks to explore previously undetectable areas of space

In August last year, NASA announced that it had successfully assembled the craft, marking the biggest milestone of its long road to completion. 

Once completed, the telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system.

It will use the most advanced technologies to make observations including infrared light that will be able to suss out details of planets and moons within our solar system most distant galaxies.

WHAT IS THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE?

The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

It is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889.

He is arguably most famous for discovering that the universe is expanding and the rate at which is does so – now coined the Hubble constant. 

The Hubble telescope is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889 (pictured)

Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990 and helped publish more than 15,000 scientific papers.

It orbits Earth at a speed of about 17,000mph (27,300kph) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles in altitude.

Hubble has the pointing accuracy of .007 arc seconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam focused on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s head on a dime roughly 200 miles (320km) away.

The Hubble telescope is named after Edwin Hubble who was responsible for coming up with the Hubble constant and is one of the greatest astronomers of all-time

Hubble’s primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across and in total is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long – the length of a large school bus.

Hubble’s launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope. 

Thanks to five servicing missions and more than 25 years of operation, our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same.