Page 10 - Keith Parrish News Today

The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed all five layers of its tennis-court-sized sunshield.

The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed all five layers of its tennis-court-sized sunshield.

The sunshield is so critical that if it isn't in place to keep the telescope and instruments extremely cold, Webb would be unable to observe the universe.

Ensuring a strong start to the new year, scientists have successfully unfurled the majestic sun shields of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA informed.

The beloved telescope took another key step in its journey to transform into its final shape.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) successfully unfurled its sunshield on Friday, in another milestone for the groundbreaking project. 

Before the James Webb Space Telescope can make countless astronomical discoveries, it has to open a 70-by-47-foot sunshield, protecting the instruments from light and heat. This deployment is one of many configurations necessary for the mission but widely regarded as the most complicated. The task will take five days to complete, beginning Tuesday.

Keith Parrish, 54, of Sykesville received his best Christmas present ever this year. At 7:20 a.m., on Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope blasted off into space after years of delay. Parrish, the telescope’s commissioning manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said now the telescope will be able to carry out its purpose — to help scientists around the world learn how the universe began.

A failure here could mean a much more conservative future for space observatories, and no second chance.