File:Throwback The Flight Telescope and its Pathfinder (38434457152).jpg

In this image, the flight "telescope segment" of the James Webb Space Telescope sits in the cleanroom at NASA Goddard, ready to be packed into a shipping container and sent to NASA Johnson. The telescope was actually sent to Johnson May 4, 2017, so this image was captured prior to that date. The "telescope segment" includes the mirrors and instruments - essentially the optically complete telescope. After testing at Johnson is complete, the telescope will be mated (at Northrop Grumman) with the rest of the spacecraft, including the tennis-court sized sunshield and spacecraft bus.

On the left side of the image, is the "Pathfinder" or test version of the telescope - it has two test mirrors mounted on its structure. It sits in Webb's transport container. The Pathfinder was actually transported to NASA Goddard from Johnson, where it was the first to undergo the test procedures that the flight would be next to undergo in Johnson's facilities. The lid of the shipping container sits at the back left of the cleanroom.

After the Pathfinder was unloaded, the flight version of the telescope was lifted into the container and secured for its trip to Houston, TX.

Part of the team of engineers and technicians that work on Webb are also pictured in the cleanroom.

Optical engineer Larkin Carey shared his recollections of this day with us:

“You know this is the first, last, and only time Pathfinder and JWST will be in the same room.” I said to [photographer] Desiree as the team was finishing up a rotation of the telescope.

On one side was Pathfinder, that had just been through three cryo tests in Chamber A at NASA JSC, was instrumental in helping prove out all the assembly processes for building such a tough project, and still held three of our flight-spare mirrors on the Pathfinder backplane. It holds a special fondness for me, the way my old backpacking tent or climbing harness reminds me of years of hard work and adventure.

On the other side was the just completed JWST telescope, that had recently been through vibration and center of curvature testing, and integration with the integrated science module and instruments. It would be transferred to the STARRS shipping container in the next few days and flown to NASA JSC shortly after to begin environmental testing (where we are now) and the first steps on its long journey to space. It was a pinnacle of Earth’s space-telescope technology, hinting at knowledge and possibility our science community has been dreaming about for decades.

“Let’s take a picture.”

It was the end of a long day in the middle of a full week, getting close to finishing a really busy spring preparing JWST to leave NASA Goddard. We only had a small core team in the room, but we gathered everyone between the two telescopes and took this photo.

Image credit: NASA/Desiree Stover

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