Telescope tower extends on Webb observatory

The James Webb Space Telescope extended a four-foot tower Wednesday to give the observatory’s mirrors and instruments, designed to function at cryogenic temperatures, enough separation from the hot side of the spacecraft after the mission’s sunshield deploys over the next few days. Webb’s Deployable Tower Assembly moved the telescope’s mirrors, still folded up in their launch configuration, away from the spacecraft bus. The telescope structure contains Webb’s 18 gold-coated hexagonal primary mirror segments and four infrared instruments mounted in a carbon composite module. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 31)