ManTech Subsidiary Hands James Webb Telescope Sunshield to Northrop; Jim Flynn Comments

Northrop Grumman has received the first of the five sunshield membranes a ManTech International subsidiary produced for NASA‘s James Webb space telescope.

Huntsville, Alabama-based NeXolve Corp. designed and manufactured the sunshield layers to help capture images of star and galaxy formation, Northrop said Wednesday.

“We are thrilled to receive the first flight layer from NeXolve as we prepare for 2018 launch,” said Jim Flynn, Webb sunshield manager at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

Northrop Grumman plans to conduct folding and deployment testing after installing the final flight layers in the sunshield subsystem.

The Webb Telescope incorporates five individual layers of Kapton to minimize the temperatures between the two sides of the observatory.