WASHINGTON, Jan 9, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The most powerful space telescope ever
built completed a tricky two-week-long deployment phase Saturday, unfolding
its final golden mirror panel, as it readies to study every phase of cosmic
history.

  Engineering teams in the James Webb Space Telescope's control room cheered
as confirmation came back that its final wing was deployed and latched into
place.

  "I'm emotional about it -- what an amazing milestone," Thomas Zurbuchen, a
senior NASA engineer, said during the live video feed as stargazers worldwide
celebrated.

  Because the telescope was too large to fit into a rocket's nose cone in its
operational configuration, it was transported folded up.

  Unfurling has been a complex and risky task -- "arguably the most
challenging deployment program ever done by NASA," said NASA engineer Mike
Menzel.

  On Saturday morning, engineers sent a command from the Space Telescope
Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland for the final section of golden
mirror to unfold.

  According to NASA, after the mirror was latched into place at 1:17 PM (1817
GMT), "the team declared all major deployments successfully completed."

  "I want to tell you just how excited and emotional I am right now," said
Zurbuchen on the live video feed. "We have a deployed telescope on orbit."

  Webb, the successor to Hubble, blasted off in an Ariane 5 rocket from
French Guiana on December 25, and is heading to its orbital point, a million
miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.

  Though Webb will reach its space destination, known as the second Lagrange
point, in a matter of weeks, it still has around another five and a half
months of setup to go.

  "While the journey is not complete, I join the Webb team in breathing a
little easier and imagining the future breakthroughs bound to inspire the
world," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

  Next steps include aligning the telescope's optics, and calibrating its
scientific instruments.

  - Far reaches of the Universe -

  Its infrared technology will allow it to see the first stars and galaxies
that formed 13.5 billion years ago, giving astronomers new insight into the
earliest epoch of the Universe.

  Earlier this week, the telescope deployed its five-layered sunshield -- a
70-foot (21 meter) long, kite-shaped apparatus that acts like a parasol,
ensuring Webb's instruments are kept in the shade so they can detect faint
infrared signals from the far reaches of the Universe.

  The sunshield will be permanently positioned between the telescope and the
Sun, Earth and Moon, with the Sun-facing side built to withstand 230 degrees
Fahrenheit (110 degrees Celsius).

  Visible and ultraviolet light emitted by the very first luminous objects
has been stretched by the Universe's expansion, and arrives today in the form
of infrared, which Webb is equipped to detect with unprecedented clarity.

  Its mission also includes the study of distant planets to determine their
origin, evolution, and habitability.

  The NASA telescope blog said Saturday's procedure was "the last of the
major deployments on the observatory."

  According to the telescope's deputy project mangaer at NASA, John Durning,
the deployments have been "100 percent successful."

  "That was probably the highest risk part of the mission," said Bill Ochs,
NASA's lead project manager for Webb, at a post-deployment press briefing.

  "That doesn't mean all our risk goes away."

  Over the next five and half months, the telescope will finish its
"commissioning", which, according to the NASA blog, "consist of settling into
stable operating temperature, aligning the mirrors, and calibrating the
science instruments."

  At the end of the commissioning period, NASA is planning to release a
series of "wow images" says Jane Rigby, a NASA project scientist.

  Though she won't say what the images will be of, they are sure to "really
knock everybody's socks off."