Ready for testing

The towering primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) stands inside a cleanroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it will undergo its last cryogenic test before it is launched into space in 2018. In preparation for testing, the 'wings' of the mirror (which consist of the three segments on each side) were spread open. This photo shows one fully deployed wing, and one that is moments from being fully deployed. An engineer observes the move.

Successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST will help us to find out more about the origins of the Universe by observing infrared light from the youngest galaxies and possibly the first stars. It will show us in detail how stars and planetary systems form and will also allow us to study planets both in our Solar System and those orbiting around other stars.

JWST is joint project of NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, and is scheduled for launch in October 2018 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.