Webb telescope fully deployed in space
Technology
The final wing is now deployed, NASA said.
WASHINGTON - (AFP) - The James Webb Space Telescope completed its two-week-long deployment phase on Saturday, unfolding the final mirror panel as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history.
"The final wing is now deployed," NASA said on Twitter, adding the team was working "to latch the wing into place, a multi-hour process."
Because the telescope was too large to fit into a rocket s nose cone in its operational configuration, it was transported folded-up. Unfurling has been a complex and challenging task -- the most daunting such project has ever attempted, according to NASA.
The most powerful space telescope ever built and the successor to Hubble, Webb blasted off in an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on December 25, and is heading to its orbital point, a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
