NASA's Webb Sunshield Undergoes Rocket Fitting, More Testing (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Webb Sunshield Undergoes Rocket Fitting, More Testing

Caption

In the photo, taken in the clean room at Northrop Grumman Corporation in Redondo Beach, the last sunshield stowing step for the spacecraft element was completed, after engineers rotated the aft Unitized Pallet Structure (UPS) in a full upward position and locked it. There are two UPSs--a forward and an aft one; the aft UPS is the longer one--seen on the right in this view. All five expansive sunshield membranes are folded up and pinned flat to the UPSs. The big silver truss-like structure in between the two UPSs is a structural substitute for the flight telescope element, which has already been tested separately.

Credit

NASA/Chris Gunn

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