Mary-Louise Hoffman
ATK and Northrop Grumman have jointly tested a backplane assembly for NASA‘s James Webb Telescope to determine if the platform could withstand the rigors of space travel and carry heavy payload.
The telescope’s primary mirror backplane system is built to hold scientific instruments and beryllium mirror segments and will aim to minimize temperature-related changes in telescope shape, NASA said Tuesday.
Northrop built the JWST spacecraft as well as sunshield and optics technology, while ATK produced the backplane using graphite materials, composites and fabrication methods.
“Completion of the static testing verifies it can hold the weight it is designed to hold. Now the structural backbone of the observatory is officially verified and ready for integration,” said Scott Texter, Northrop’s JWST optical telescope element manager.
The backplane system underwent initial cryogenic thermal assessments at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama last fall.
Northrop is set to integrate the optical telescope element structure and will then deliver the OTE platform to Goddard laboratory for integration with the telescope mirrors.
NASA will send the JWST spacecraft into space in 2018 to observe distant objects, planets and galaxies.
