Redondo Beach's Northrop Grumman Completes Sunshield for Webb Space Telescope

REDONDO BEACH, CA -- Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach has finished the last of the five sunshield layers responsible for protecting the instruments in NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the agency announced Monday.

The sunshield was designed in Redondo Beach and will help to prevent background heat from the sun from damaging the telescope's infrared sensors, according to NASA. Each of the sunshield's membrane, designed by NeXolve Corporation, is as thin as a strand of human hair.

The layers work together to reduce the temperatures between the hot and cold sides of the observatory by approximately 570 degrees Fahrenheit, the agency said.

Though each layer is incredibly thin, the sunshield is the size of a tennis court, making the Webb telescope the largest ever built for space.

“The groundbreaking sunshield design will assist in providing the imaging of the formation of stars and galaxies more than 13.5 billion years ago,” said Jim Flynn, Webb sunshield manager, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. “The delivery of this final flight sunshield membrane is a significant milestone as we prepare for 2018 launch.”

Northrop Grumman was also responsible for the telescope's optics and the design of the vehicle that will deliver the telescope into space. The sunshield, along with the rest of the spacecraft, will fold origami-style into an Ariane 5 rocket, according to NASA.

The Webb telescope was built as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope will observe distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies formed and see unexplored planets around distant stars.

Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman.