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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

After years of busted budgets and schedules, NASA says its $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is ready for testing and on track for launch in 2018. [...] NASA has completed an initial round of laser-based optical measurements, known as a Center of Curvature Test, to determine that the telescope's 18 hexagonal mirror elements are precisely aligned to produce sharp images. In the months ahead, the mirror will be subjected to the stresses and strains it's expected to experience during launch. Then the mirror's alignment will be checked again to make sure it'll work correctly in space.

NASA also says the fifth and last layer of the telescope's sunshield has been completed and delivered to a facility in California. The reflective, foldable sunshield is designed to keep the telescope's sensitive electronics and optics from overheating. Eventually, all the components will be combined to create the finished telescope, and then loaded onto a European Ariane 5 rocket for launch in October 2018. The telescope will be sent to a gravitational balance point beyond Earth known as Sun-Earth L-2.

Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2016/nasa-ames-webb-space-telescope-testing/

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