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  • Northrop Conducts STEM Outreach Efforts Via UK Screening of James Webb Space Telescope Documentary - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Northrop Conducts STEM Outreach Efforts Via UK Screening of James Webb Space Telescope Documentary

    Northrop Grumman has screened in the U.K. a documentary film on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope as part of the company’s efforts to encourage students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The film Into the Unknown focuses on the development of the space telescope designed to launch in late 2018 to gather information […] More

  • Northrop Receives Astro Aerospace-Built Boom Assemblies for NASA’s Webb Telescope - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Northrop Receives Astro Aerospace-Built Boom Assemblies for NASA’s Webb Telescope

    Northrop Grumman has received the mid-boom assemblies from its Astro Aerospace subsidiary for integration with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Astro Aerospace designed and built two boom assemblies designed to deploy the telescope’s sunshield component once in orbit, Northrop said Monday. Astro Aerospace delivered the assemblies to Northrop’s Redondo Beach, California-based facility after it completed […] More

  • NASA's Cassini Spacecraft With Northrop’s Navigation Tool Travels Through Gap Between Saturn, Rings - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft With Northrop’s Navigation Tool Travels Through Gap Between Saturn, Rings

    A Northrop Grumman-built navigation platform has worked to provide attitude control capabilities for NASA’s Cassini space vehicle in support of the Saturn exploration mission. The spacecraft with Northrop’s Space Inertial Reference Unit maneuvered through a 1,500-mile gap between the planet and its rings on April 26, the company said Thursday. Northrop’s SIRU navigation platform has a […] More

  • NASA, Industry Partners Resume Vibration Tests on James Webb Space Telescope - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    NASA, Industry Partners Resume Vibration Tests on James Webb Space Telescope

    NASA has restarted vibration tests on the James Webb Space Telescope after demonstrations shut down early on Dec. 3, 2016, due to sensor readings that went beyond predicted levels. The space agency said Wednesday an investigation revealed that the incident was caused by small motions of launch restraint mechanisms that keep one of JWST’s mirror wings folded-up. “Now […] More

  • Raytheon Tests James Webb Telescope's Flight Operations System - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Raytheon Tests James Webb Telescope’s Flight Operations System

    Raytheon has conducted factory acceptance tests on a flight operations system for NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope. The tests occurred at Raytheon’s Aurora, Colorado-based facility and aimed to verify 800 requirements on JWST’s ground control system, the company said Wednesday. Raytheon built the space observatory’s ground control system on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, under a contract […] More

  • Lockheed Starts Optical Payload Development for NASA's Dark Energy Research Programs - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Lockheed Starts Optical Payload Development for NASA’s Dark Energy Research Programs

    Lockheed Martin has started develop an optical payload that could support NASA‘s research on a mysterious force called dark energy which causes the universe to expand. Lockheed said Thursday NASA selected the company’s Palo Alto, California-based Advanced Technology Center to start the formulation phase of the Wide-Field Optical-Mechanical Assembly. NASA could choose WOMA to serve as the core of the primary […] More

  • NASA Puts Webb Telescope’s Primary Mirror Through 1st 'Center of Curvature' Test - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    NASA Puts Webb Telescope’s Primary Mirror Through 1st ‘Center of Curvature’ Test

    Engineers have completed the first “Center of Curvature” test on the primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in order to measure the shape of the mirror before the telescope goes through a series of launch environment tests. NASA engineers collaborated with technicians from Ball Aerospace & Technologies and the Space Telescope Science Institute to conduct […] More

  • Northrop Recognized for James Webb Space Telescope Program; Scott Willoughby Comments - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Northrop Recognized for James Webb Space Telescope Program; Scott Willoughby Comments

    Northrop Grumman has received Aviation Week magazine’s Program Excellence award for the company’s program goal achievement and leadership role in the development of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Scott Willoughby, vice president and James Webb Space Telescope program manager at Northrop, was selected in the subsystem research and design category for delivering the telescope and Integrated Science […] More

  • Northrop Receives Final NeXolve-Built Sunshield Layer for Webb Space Observatory - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Northrop Receives Final NeXolve-Built Sunshield Layer for Webb Space Observatory

    NeXolve has built and delivered the fifth sunshield layer for NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope to Northrop Grumman‘s aerospace campus in Redondo Beach, California. NASA said Tuesday Northrop will integrate final flight layers into the telescope’s sunshield subsystem to support folding and deployment tests as part of the final system validation process. Northrop designed the telescope’s, optics and spacecraft bus as the […] More

  • Northrop Delivers Optical Telescope Element to NASA for Webb Observatory Integration - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Northrop Delivers Optical Telescope Element to NASA for Webb Observatory Integration

    Northrop Grumman has delivered the Optical Telescope Element to NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center to support the 18 hexagonal gold-coated beryllium mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope. The company said Tuesday the 21.5-foot OTE is made of graphite composite materials and is designed to support the Webb telescope’s deep space observation mission. Scott Texter, Northrop telescope manager for the aerospace systems business, said […] More

  • Lockheed, NASA Complete Test on Webb Telescope Infrared Camera - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    Lockheed, NASA Complete Test on Webb Telescope Infrared Camera

    A Lockheed Martin optical instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope has completed tests at NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center. The company said Friday it built the Near Infrared Camera for the space agency and the University of Arizona. The instrument serves as the Webb telescope’s primary science instrument and mirror-alignment sensor, Lockheed added. “[The] alignment of the primary mirror segments depends on […] More

  • NASA Puts Webb Telescope Instruments Through Cryogenic Test - top government contractors - best government contracting event
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    NASA Puts Webb Telescope Instruments Through Cryogenic Test

    NASA has performed a cryogenic test on the cameras and spectrographs of the James Webb Space Telescope in order to determine if the systems could withstand extremely cold temperatures inside a space environment simulator. The Webb telescope’s scientific instruments have been removed from a cylindrical  simulation chamber at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland following completion of […] More