spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


NASA approves James Webb Space Telescope mirror design
Posted: Thu, Sep 11, 2003, 10:51 AM ET (1451 GMT)
James Webb Space Telescope (NASA) NASA announced Wednesday that it has signed off on the mirror design for the James Webb Space Telescope, a spacecraft billed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The design, approved by NASA and prime contractor Northrop Grumman Space Technology (formerly TRW), will use a primary mirror made of 18 hexagonal segments of beryllium. The beryllium mirror was part of the initial proposal that NASA selected one year ago, but conducted a six-month test of both it as well as an alternative technology, ultra low-expansion glass. Production of the mirror segments is scheduled to begin in the next few months, although the spacecraft is not scheduled for launch until August 2011. While both NASA and Northrop Grumman press releases indicate that the mirror will be 6.5 meters in diameter, reports in recent months indicated the telescope would be shrunk slightly to six meters across in a cost-savings effort.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief

SpaceX launches Indonesia communications satellite
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:07 AM ET (0807 GMT)

Soyuz launches Progress cargo spacecraft to ISS
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:06 AM ET (0806 GMT)

news links
Thursday, September 18
Rocket Lab Looks To Raise $750M In Share Sale
Aviation Week — 1:53 am ET (0553 GMT)
Update: SpaceX Launch from Vandenberg Rescheduled Due to Weather
Santa Barbara (CA) Edhat — 1:50 am ET (0550 GMT)


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list