Webb’s science instruments

The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has a suite of four powerful instruments that will investigate the cosmos. They are located in the Integrated Science Instrument Module, behind the primary mirror.

ESA plays a crucial role in Webb’s science payload, contributing the NIRSpec instrument and a 50% share of the MIRI instrument.

NIRSpec is built by European industry to ESA’s specifications and managed by the ESA Webb Project at ESTEC, the Netherlands. The prime contractor is Airbus Defence and Space in Ottobrunn, Germany. The NIRSpec detector and Micro-Shutter Array subsystems are provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

MIRI was developed as a partnership between Europe and the USA. The main partners are ESA, a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and GSFC. The European Consortium institutes built the MIRI imager, spectrographs and coronagraph to ESA’s standards, and the detectors and dedicated cooler systems are provided by JPL.

NIRCam was provided by the University of Arizona.

NIRISS was provided by the Canadian Space Agency.

Find more details about the instruments here.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).