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| First JWST instrument finishes testing |
| A pioneering instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has completed testing in the UK. MIRI is a key European contribution to the mission, which will be a space telescope with a mirror seven times bigger in area than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| Date: 18 Aug 2011 |
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| MIRI starts to take shape |
| A major instrument due to fly aboard the James Webb Space Telescope is getting its first taste of space in the test facilities at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom. The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) has been designed to contribute to areas of investigation as diverse as the first light in the early Universe and the formation of planets around other stars. |
| Date: 30 Sep 2010 |
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| James Webb Space Telescope passes key mission design review milestone |
| The James Webb Space Telescope has passed its most significant mission milestone to date, the Mission Critical Design Review. This signifies that the integrated observatory will meet all science and engineering requirements for its mission. |
| Date: 03 May 2010 |
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| James Webb Space Telescope sunshield passes critical design review |
| The James Webb Space Telescope sunshield has passed its critical design review, marking the successful completion of another mission milestone. The review certified that the sunshield design is complete and meets all the mission requirements; this clears the way for the start of manufacturing of the flight model sunshield. |
| Date: 03 Mar 2010 |
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| NIRSpec Instrument Engineering Test Unit model is completed |
| The Engineering Test Unit model of NIRSpec - the innovative and pioneering Near Infrared Spectrograph for the James Webb Space Telescope - has been completed by the prime contractor, EADS Astrium, and is ready to be shipped to NASA for testing. |
| Date: 14 Oct 2009 |
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| JWST Sunshield Preliminary Design Review Complete |
| The tennis court-sized sunshield built by Northrop Grumman for the James Webb Space Telescope has completed its preliminary design review (PDR) at the company's Space Technology facility. |
| Date: 20 Mar 2008 |
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| Amazing Miniaturized 'SIDECAR' Drives Webb Telescope's Signal |
| Many technologies have become so advanced that they've been miniaturized to take up less space and weigh less. That's what happened to detector controls and data conversion electronics on the James Webb Space Telescope being built by Northrop Grumman. The electronics will convert analogue signals to digital signals and provide better images to Earth. |
| Date: 20 Feb 2008 |
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| MIRI ready for its cryogenic performance testing |
| JWST's Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) is fully assembled in the cryo chamber at Rutherford Appelton Laboratory (RAL) UK, and ready for the first test of its functional and scientific performance under vaccum and cryogenic conditions, simulating the operational conditions in space. |
| Date: 06 Dec 2007 |
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| NIRSpec Reaches Milestone |
| The NIRSpec instrument recently successfully passed the Mandatory Inspection Point (MIP) of its FORE optical system. The FORE optical system re-images a fraction of the focal plane of the 6.6 metre diameter JWST optical telescope onto the NIRSpec Micro-Shutter Array (MSA), which is a transmissive MEMS system used to select the scientific targets that are to be observed by NIRSpec. |
| Date: 02 Nov 2007 |
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| Telescope Mirror Blanks Completed |
| Construction of the mirror blanks of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been completed by Axsys Technologies Inc. in Cullman, Alabama, USA. |
| Date: 08 Feb 2007 |
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| ESA awards prime contract for instrument on board JWST |
| Following a competitive definition study, ESA has awarded EADS Astrium GmbH with the contract to build the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
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| Date: 06 Aug 2004 |
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| JWST - Announcement of Opportunity |
| The ESA Directorate of Science has issued an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for membership of the Instrument Science Team (IST) of NIRSpec. |
| Date: 18 Mar 2004 |
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| ESA on the trail of the earliest stars |
| Somewhere in the distant, old Universe, a population of stars hide undetected. They were the first to form after the birth of the Universe and are supposed to be far bigger in mass than any star visible today. |
| Date: 27 Jan 2003 |
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| ESA celebrates the discovery of infrared light |
| 200 astronomers gather in Toledo, Spain, to set the scientific agenda
for ESA's next infrared space telescope
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| Date: 06 Dec 2000 |
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| Let's go! ESA's Future Science missions get full approval |
| At its 92nd meeting, on 11-12 October 2000, ESA's Science Programme Committee took the final
step to consolidate the future of the science programme by unanimously endorsing the
recommendations of the Space Science Advisory Committee of 15 September, which proposed a
package to be implemented in the years 2008-2013. |
| Date: 13 Oct 2000 |
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| How the next space telescopes will unveil the dark ages of the Universe |
| For current astronomers, the 'darkest' epoch of the universe is the time when the first galaxies started to form and evolve: no instrument today can peer into that era. Unveiling it will be the task of the next giant space-and ground-based telescopes, which will provide different pieces of information to complete the jigsaw at last. As astronomers explained last week in Munich at the conference 'Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments 2000', ESA's space telescope FIRST will take the lead in this task, unveiling the galactic collisions that produced the first stellar 'baby boom' in the history of the Universe. NGST, a mission currently under study by several spaces agencies, will follow two years later.
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| Date: 05 Apr 2000 |
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| INFO 21-1998: Europe discusses role in future space telescope |
| The head of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Science Programme will tell more than 200 astronomers gathered in Belgium today that Europe could play a significant role in the development of a new space telescope. |
| Date: 18 Jun 1998 |
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