Posted: Jan 16, 2022 9:54 am
The slow and steady un-stowing of the individual mirror segments is underway. Each mirror segment was clamped for launch and about 12.5mm (1/2 inch) of movement is required to move each of them out of their locks. The rate of movement is about 1mm per day and all segments (apart from 2, for some unspecified reason) are about 1/3rd of the way, by post time. This blog post by Alise Fisher gives further info:
Mirror, Mirror…On Its Way!
With major deployments complete, Webb continues its journey to its final halo orbit around L2. In the meantime, there are several smaller deployments in the next couple of weeks, which constitute the beginning of a several-month phase of aligning the telescope’s optics. This week, we have started the process of moving the mirror segments (all primary plus secondary) out of their stowed launch positions. For more details, here is Marshall Perrin from the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of the Webb Mission Operations Center: ...(continues)