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Deployable Tower Assembly Plays Major Role in James Webb Space Telescope

Building a space telescope to see the light from the earliest stars of our universe is a pretty complex task. Although much of the attention goes to instruments and the giant mirrors on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, there are other components that have big jobs to do and that required imagination, engineering, and innovation to become a reality.

11 Sep 2015

AIAA Honors Herschel and Planck Project Teams with Space Systems Award

The Herschel and Planck project teams are this year's recipients of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space Systems Award. Both space missions were led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with important participation from NASA.

7 Sep 2015

Petal-Shaped Starshade Effectively Identifies Celestial Objects

Northrop Grumman engineers and astronomers demonstrated the ability of a petal-shaped starshade to clearly see celestial objects during two, weeklong series of engineering tests on Kitt Peak at the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. This was the first time a starshade was tested against actual astronomical objects.

3 Sep 2015

NASA Goddard to Handle Mirror Assembly of James Webb Space Telescope Backplane

One of the most crucial pieces of the James Webb Space Telescope, the flight backplane, arrived on Aug. 25, on schedule for Webb's 2018 launch date at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for mirror assembly. The backplane is the "spine" of the telescope, responsible for holding its 18 hexagonal mirrors and instruments steady while the telescope is looking into deep space.

29 Aug 2015

NASA Reports Arrival of James Webb Space Telescope Backplane for Mirror Assembly

28 Aug 2015

IRIS and Hinode Help Understand Why Sun’s Corona is Hotter than its Surface

Modern telescopes and satellites have helped us measure the blazing hot temperatures of the sun from afar. Mostly the temperatures follow a clear pattern: The sun produces energy by fusing hydrogen in its core, so the layers surrounding the core generally get cooler as you move outwards--with one exception. Two NASA missions have just made a significant step towards understanding why the corona--the outermost, wispy layer of the sun's atmosphere --is hundreds of times hotter than the lower photosphere, which is the sun's visible surface.

27 Aug 2015

First Sunshield Layer for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Delivered to Northrop Grumman

The first of the five sunshield layers that will make it possible for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to image the formation of stars and galaxies created more than 13.5 billion years ago, was delivered to Northrop Grumman Corporation's Space Park facility April 24.

13 Aug 2015

AOA Xinetics Builds Incredible Deformable Mirror for World's Largest Solar Telescope

The world's largest ground-based solar telescope is one step closer to operation with the acceptance of the deformable mirror engineered by AOA Xinetics, a Northrop Grumman Corporation company. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), currently under construction on Haleakala on the island of Maui, Hawaii, will offer unprecedented high-resolution images of the sun using the latest adaptive optics technology to provide its distortion-free imaging.

31 Jul 2015

‘Breakthrough Listen’ Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence to use World’s two Most Powerful Telescopes

A West Virginia University expert says humanity’s first attempt to detect signs of alien life started 55 years ago in the University’s backyard and is one of the only places in the world that an unprecedented reinvigoration of the search can continue.

23 Jul 2015

NSF’s Green Bank Telescope to Join Intensive Scientific Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) will join in the most powerful, comprehensive, and intensive scientific search ever for signs of intelligent life in the Universe. The international endeavor, known as the Breakthrough Listen, will scan the nearest million stars in our own Galaxy and stars in 100 other galaxies for the telltale radio signature of an advanced civilization.

21 Jul 2015