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NASA’s Webb Telescope Team Prepares For Earsplitting Acoustic Test

NASA Webb Telescope Team

Feb 24, 2017
Article

Inside NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the environmental portion of vibration testing and prepared for the acoustic test on the telescope. Engineers and technicians pushed the telescope (wrapped in a clean tent) through a large set of insulated steel doors nearly a foot thick into the Acoustic Test Chamber, where the telescope will be exposed to the earsplitting noise (and resulting vibration) of launch. These photos show the telescope inside (top) and outside (bottom) the acoustics chamber.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

For more information about the Webb telescope visit: www.jwst.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov/webb

A huge partially transparent box is moved into the acoustic chamber, which a small but very tall room. Doors that are several inches thick are open, showing the room and the box. Through the box walls, you can just see gold hexagon mirrors.
The James Webb Space Telescope inside the acoustics chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Credits: NASA/C. Gunn
Another view of the transparent box from inside the acoustic chamber. Tall beige walls make up the sides, and huge heavy doors are open at the far end, where the telescope in its box is being moved.
The James Webb Space Telescope outside the acoustics chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Credits: NASA/C. Gunn

Laura Betz
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center