1 00:00:00,269 --> 00:00:03,352 (mellow piano music) 2 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:07,440 We are very far from being able to predict 3 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:09,813 what we're going to see until we see it. 4 00:00:10,807 --> 00:00:13,890 (mellow piano music) 5 00:00:15,030 --> 00:00:16,729 Anything could happen. 6 00:00:16,729 --> 00:00:19,473 (mellow piano music) 7 00:00:19,473 --> 00:00:22,890 (piano music crescendos) 8 00:00:27,970 --> 00:00:30,730 It's built and it's ready to fly, and for me, 9 00:00:30,730 --> 00:00:33,583 it's been a part of almost all of my career. 10 00:00:35,870 --> 00:00:38,270 23 years is a long time to get to work 11 00:00:38,270 --> 00:00:40,561 on one project of this kind. 12 00:00:40,561 --> 00:00:43,311 (dramatic music) 13 00:00:45,980 --> 00:00:48,980 And there were those that argued that it couldn't be done. 14 00:00:50,290 --> 00:00:52,940 It's the largest, most advanced, 15 00:00:52,940 --> 00:00:55,853 most expensive space telescope ever made. 16 00:00:57,330 --> 00:00:59,753 The James Webb space telescope, 17 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:07,500 the product of decades of research, design and innovation. 18 00:01:07,500 --> 00:01:09,700 This huge machine is built to look further 19 00:01:09,700 --> 00:01:11,673 into the universe than ever before. 20 00:01:12,657 --> 00:01:15,824 {\an8}(pensive piano music) 21 00:01:20,032 --> 00:01:21,530 (upbeat techno music) 22 00:01:21,530 --> 00:01:23,860 The James Webb space telescope is designed 23 00:01:23,860 --> 00:01:25,730 to nothing less than revolutionize 24 00:01:25,730 --> 00:01:27,533 our understanding of the cosmos. 25 00:01:28,399 --> 00:01:31,280 (upbeat techno music) 26 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:32,993 It has three main missions: 27 00:01:34,030 --> 00:01:36,273 to see the earliest light from the Big Bang, 28 00:01:38,250 --> 00:01:41,143 to study the formation of galaxies and stars, 29 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,463 and to look for signs of life around distant planets. 30 00:01:47,603 --> 00:01:50,010 (upbeat techno music) 31 00:01:50,010 --> 00:01:51,340 I think the greatest promise 32 00:01:51,340 --> 00:01:53,760 of the James Webb space telescope is 33 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:56,260 it will answer questions that none of us 34 00:01:56,260 --> 00:01:58,690 {\an8}have imagined or thought to ask. 35 00:01:58,690 --> 00:02:01,040 {\an8}And the discovery potential is huge. 36 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:02,930 {\an8}And I think it's going to have 37 00:02:02,930 --> 00:02:06,222 an amazing effect on humanity. 38 00:02:06,222 --> 00:02:09,410 (upbeat techno music) 39 00:02:09,410 --> 00:02:12,180 {\an8}James Webb will go where no other telescope 40 00:02:12,180 --> 00:02:13,623 {\an8}has gone before. 41 00:02:14,690 --> 00:02:16,290 We are going to try and see 42 00:02:16,290 --> 00:02:19,150 the first stars and galaxies, 43 00:02:19,150 --> 00:02:23,050 and see how stars and protoplanetary systems were formed, 44 00:02:23,050 --> 00:02:26,100 which led to the formation of planets. 45 00:02:26,100 --> 00:02:29,380 We are going to see a lot more than we have seen before. 46 00:02:29,380 --> 00:02:33,490 Three, two, one, and lift off. 47 00:02:33,490 --> 00:02:34,700 The space shuttle Discovery, 48 00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:36,880 with the Hubble space telescope, 49 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:38,297 our window on the universe. 50 00:02:38,297 --> 00:02:40,060 The first conference to consider 51 00:02:40,060 --> 00:02:44,080 a telescope like Webb took place in 1989, 52 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,783 before the Hubble space telescope was even launched. 53 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:51,000 This is because scientists already knew 54 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:52,840 that if they wanted to see the faintest, 55 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,660 earliest light of the universe, they would need 56 00:02:55,660 --> 00:02:58,810 a radically different type of instrument to Hubble. 57 00:02:58,810 --> 00:03:01,290 Unlike Hubble that primarily operated 58 00:03:01,290 --> 00:03:02,890 in the visible spectrum, 59 00:03:02,890 --> 00:03:05,880 {\an8}in order for us to be able to see back in time 60 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,150 {\an8}to those very first galaxies, 61 00:03:09,150 --> 00:03:11,620 James Webb is actually going to primarily work 62 00:03:11,620 --> 00:03:13,713 in the infrared spectrum. 63 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,330 The photons that started off in the optical wavelengths 64 00:03:19,330 --> 00:03:20,863 that our eyes could see, 65 00:03:21,780 --> 00:03:23,880 {\an8}because the universe is expanding, 66 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:26,410 {\an8}that light is shifted into the infrared, 67 00:03:26,410 --> 00:03:29,020 {\an8}its wavelengths have gotten longer, 68 00:03:29,020 --> 00:03:31,713 but that's a trick that mother nature played on us. 69 00:03:33,670 --> 00:03:35,810 The first light that ever appeared 70 00:03:35,810 --> 00:03:38,320 was produced by the first stars and galaxies 71 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:40,653 13.5 billion years ago. 72 00:03:41,930 --> 00:03:43,980 Then, as the universe grew, 73 00:03:43,980 --> 00:03:46,640 this light became redder and fainter 74 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,820 until it's now invisible to our eyes. 75 00:03:49,820 --> 00:03:53,420 But Webb is designed to overcome our limitations, 76 00:03:53,420 --> 00:03:56,713 to allow us to see what has never been seen before. 77 00:03:58,270 --> 00:03:59,900 So it starts off really simple, 78 00:03:59,900 --> 00:04:01,260 but what that means is, 79 00:04:01,260 --> 00:04:03,740 I'm looking at light that is very faint, 80 00:04:03,740 --> 00:04:06,350 comes from very far back in time, 81 00:04:06,350 --> 00:04:08,070 so I have to catch more photons. 82 00:04:08,070 --> 00:04:09,260 I need a bigger mirror. 83 00:04:09,260 --> 00:04:12,130 I need something seven times bigger than Hubble. 84 00:04:12,130 --> 00:04:13,970 And once you start conceiving of that, 85 00:04:13,970 --> 00:04:15,630 you actually are designing a mirror 86 00:04:15,630 --> 00:04:17,683 that's bigger than the top of a rocket. 87 00:04:18,570 --> 00:04:21,420 This was a challenge to our engineers, 88 00:04:21,420 --> 00:04:24,900 to think of how they could produce the technology 89 00:04:24,900 --> 00:04:26,882 that the scientists needed. 90 00:04:26,882 --> 00:04:28,540 (mellow music) 91 00:04:28,540 --> 00:04:30,710 The only way to make a very large telescope 92 00:04:30,710 --> 00:04:33,283 fit inside the nose bearing of a launch vehicle, 93 00:04:34,270 --> 00:04:37,713 in this case, the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rocket, 94 00:04:39,310 --> 00:04:41,810 is to make the instrument fold up, 95 00:04:41,810 --> 00:04:44,093 like some enormous piece of origami. 96 00:04:45,505 --> 00:04:47,520 (mellow music) 97 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:48,380 So, next thing you know, 98 00:04:48,380 --> 00:04:50,030 you're building a segmented mirror, 99 00:04:50,030 --> 00:04:52,880 a mirror in pieces that can fold up for a launch, 100 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:54,980 right, and deploy when it goes into space. 101 00:04:56,620 --> 00:04:58,700 {\an8}I had already been talking to my friends here at Goddard 102 00:04:58,700 --> 00:05:01,970 {\an8}about, "Can't we build a telescope that unfolds in space 103 00:05:01,970 --> 00:05:03,710 and maybe not too expensive?" 104 00:05:03,710 --> 00:05:07,290 So my friends laughed at me because that was too hard. 105 00:05:07,290 --> 00:05:09,890 Right now, we're building one and it is pretty hard. 106 00:05:11,290 --> 00:05:12,920 So this is a revolutionary concept. 107 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:14,410 Nobody had ever tried it before, 108 00:05:14,410 --> 00:05:17,240 but I always thought we would find a way. 109 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,360 The mirror is built of 18 separate elements, 110 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:22,220 each of which is made and installed 111 00:05:22,220 --> 00:05:26,520 with incredible precision to replicate a single large mirror 112 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,943 that can reveal the tiniest of details. 113 00:05:30,070 --> 00:05:33,330 It's like only 15 nanometers of error. 114 00:05:33,330 --> 00:05:35,253 It's the size of a bacteria. 115 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,620 So, that's so precise that I can find, 116 00:05:39,620 --> 00:05:42,660 I could find the heat signature of a bumblebee on the Moon, 117 00:05:42,660 --> 00:05:45,270 if I was using this telescope from Earth, 118 00:05:45,270 --> 00:05:48,870 which means in our case, we can find a star 119 00:05:48,870 --> 00:05:53,540 that a photon came off 13 and a half billion years ago. 120 00:05:53,540 --> 00:05:56,763 That's what years of our lives have been put into. 121 00:05:58,533 --> 00:05:59,700 (upbeat music) 122 00:05:59,700 --> 00:06:01,510 The mirrors are fantastic. 123 00:06:01,510 --> 00:06:04,620 They are made out of a material called beryllium, 124 00:06:04,620 --> 00:06:07,570 which is six times stronger than steel, 125 00:06:07,570 --> 00:06:10,310 but only about the third of the density of aluminum. 126 00:06:10,310 --> 00:06:14,700 Having that strength also allows us to not deform, 127 00:06:14,700 --> 00:06:16,490 so that we can have a perfect flatness 128 00:06:16,490 --> 00:06:20,083 and take that perfect image of the distant galaxies. 129 00:06:21,300 --> 00:06:25,910 But beryllium doesn't reflect infrared light that well, 130 00:06:25,910 --> 00:06:28,110 so we coat the mirror in gold, 131 00:06:28,110 --> 00:06:30,770 because gold reflects infrared, 132 00:06:30,770 --> 00:06:33,050 and it looks gorgeous, right, 133 00:06:33,050 --> 00:06:34,810 but we didn't build it to look gorgeous. 134 00:06:34,810 --> 00:06:36,083 It's actually functional. 135 00:06:37,270 --> 00:06:40,140 The mirrors send light to four instruments, 136 00:06:40,140 --> 00:06:42,770 two cameras, and two spectrographs 137 00:06:42,770 --> 00:06:45,840 that can analyze the chemical makeup of galaxies, 138 00:06:45,840 --> 00:06:49,390 stars, and the atmospheres of distant planets, 139 00:06:49,390 --> 00:06:53,043 looking for biomarkers, the chemical signs of life. 140 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:57,067 {\an8}I would love if I could tell my grandchildren, 141 00:06:57,067 --> 00:06:59,960 {\an8}"Hey, I did, I worked on that telescope, 142 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:04,360 the one that saw the first biomarker on an exoplanet." 143 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:06,460 Oxygen, and that oxygen 144 00:07:06,460 --> 00:07:08,090 couldn't have gotten there on its own. 145 00:07:08,090 --> 00:07:11,573 It was produced by some kind of organic life. 146 00:07:12,690 --> 00:07:14,030 These instruments alone 147 00:07:14,030 --> 00:07:16,853 took years of experimentation and development. 148 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,530 Many challenges had to be solved. 149 00:07:20,530 --> 00:07:22,610 {\an8}Maybe we underestimated some of those challenges 150 00:07:22,610 --> 00:07:24,360 {\an8}in the early days; I'm sure we did. 151 00:07:27,090 --> 00:07:28,530 But building the telescope 152 00:07:28,530 --> 00:07:29,683 is only the beginning. 153 00:07:31,260 --> 00:07:34,150 To be able to detect such faint light, 154 00:07:34,150 --> 00:07:37,570 the telescope must be kept very, very cold. 155 00:07:37,570 --> 00:07:39,410 (pensive music) 156 00:07:39,410 --> 00:07:41,460 If you're going to build an infrared space telescope 157 00:07:41,460 --> 00:07:43,810 that wants to see, you know, the first light 158 00:07:43,810 --> 00:07:46,410 that turned on in the universe, which is by definition, 159 00:07:46,410 --> 00:07:48,440 the farthest things are our way, right, 160 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:50,050 they're going to be very, very dim. 161 00:07:50,050 --> 00:07:52,410 Now, since they're very dim, 162 00:07:52,410 --> 00:07:56,650 you do not want that telescope to be glowing brighter 163 00:07:56,650 --> 00:07:58,560 than the very stars it's looking at, 164 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:00,360 and things that are at normal temperatures 165 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:02,260 like here on the Earth are glowing, you know, 166 00:08:02,260 --> 00:08:04,050 intensely with infrared. 167 00:08:04,050 --> 00:08:07,370 So, our telescope has to be extremely cold. 168 00:08:07,370 --> 00:08:08,520 How cold? 169 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:09,760 We're going to run this optic 170 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,680 at minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, 171 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,030 which means I'm designing materials, 172 00:08:15,030 --> 00:08:18,130 even glue that holds the structure together, 173 00:08:18,130 --> 00:08:21,362 has to now work at cryogenic temperatures. 174 00:08:21,362 --> 00:08:23,360 (pensive music) 175 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:25,360 To keep the telescope cool, 176 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,120 it must avoid the heat given off by the Sun and the Earth, 177 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,383 which drove many engineering choices. 178 00:08:32,470 --> 00:08:34,620 First, unlike Hubble, 179 00:08:34,620 --> 00:08:38,140 the Webb telescope could not be in low Earth orbit. 180 00:08:38,140 --> 00:08:40,040 The Earth is so big and so close 181 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:42,400 that it's shining heat radiation in all the time, 182 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,560 so, well, you cannot make the telescope cold. 183 00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:46,770 That's like, you know, 184 00:08:46,770 --> 00:08:49,960 trying to keep a beer cold next to the blast furnace. 185 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:52,910 So, putting it in low Earth orbit would be, 186 00:08:52,910 --> 00:08:55,530 make our thermal design for this observatory 187 00:08:55,530 --> 00:08:56,780 just more of a nightmare. 188 00:08:58,200 --> 00:08:59,770 The solution is to send Webb 189 00:08:59,770 --> 00:09:03,760 out into deep space, a million miles from Earth, 190 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,164 to a point called the Lagrange 2, or L2. 191 00:09:07,164 --> 00:09:09,370 (mellow music) 192 00:09:09,370 --> 00:09:12,570 This is a gravitationally stable place in space 193 00:09:12,570 --> 00:09:16,393 that Webb can circle as it orbits the Sun with the Earth. 194 00:09:17,980 --> 00:09:19,297 So it starts as this really, 195 00:09:19,297 --> 00:09:20,720 "Hey, this is to help me find out 196 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:23,020 where did we come from and are we alone?" 197 00:09:23,020 --> 00:09:25,830 Leads to this massive engineering undertaking 198 00:09:25,830 --> 00:09:29,710 for a bigger mirror than humankind has ever put in orbit, 199 00:09:29,710 --> 00:09:33,440 flying it farther away and operating a colder. 200 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:35,560 And then with that, we started on a path 201 00:09:35,560 --> 00:09:38,030 of a decade-long of invention. 202 00:09:38,030 --> 00:09:40,262 There's a continuum of difficult things 203 00:09:40,262 --> 00:09:43,773 (laughs) to make this mission a reality. 204 00:09:44,860 --> 00:09:46,760 You know, people thought we were nuts 205 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,747 for even, you know, embarking on this. 206 00:09:49,747 --> 00:09:51,270 (mellow music) 207 00:09:51,270 --> 00:09:53,600 Even at a million miles from Earth, 208 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,750 the heat of the Sun would make the telescope useless, 209 00:09:56,750 --> 00:09:59,560 and the size and weight of the instrument ruled out 210 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:02,829 using conventional cooling systems to keep it cold. 211 00:10:02,829 --> 00:10:05,350 (mellow music) 212 00:10:05,350 --> 00:10:08,960 You can't do that for a six and a half-meter optic. 213 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,890 You can't put enough refrigerators up there behind it. 214 00:10:11,890 --> 00:10:14,490 You wouldn't launch them, maybe too heavy, right? 215 00:10:14,490 --> 00:10:15,710 So we have to do what's called 216 00:10:15,710 --> 00:10:18,611 passively cool this giant optic. 217 00:10:18,611 --> 00:10:20,710 (mellow music) 218 00:10:20,710 --> 00:10:22,540 We're going to do it just by pointing it 219 00:10:22,540 --> 00:10:24,900 into the blackness of space. 220 00:10:24,900 --> 00:10:28,470 Let the telescope just cool into the darkness of space. 221 00:10:28,470 --> 00:10:31,340 That allowed you then to build this very big telescope, 222 00:10:31,340 --> 00:10:33,380 because if you're going to do it with liquid cryogens, 223 00:10:33,380 --> 00:10:34,880 you're going to have so much mass 224 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:36,580 it was never going to be possible. 225 00:10:37,910 --> 00:10:40,200 To protect Webb from the heat of the sun 226 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,440 requires one of its most ambitious innovations, 227 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,890 a giant sun shield the size of a tennis court, 228 00:10:46,890 --> 00:10:49,920 made of five layers of reflective fabric, 229 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:52,513 each as thin as a human hair. 230 00:10:53,410 --> 00:10:55,760 The sun shield has been the source 231 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:58,410 of so much of our efforts of late, 232 00:10:58,410 --> 00:11:01,870 to get the telescope done and get it into space. 233 00:11:01,870 --> 00:11:05,130 Five thin layers that have to be controlled 234 00:11:05,130 --> 00:11:09,233 and deployed in space, that is a challenge. 235 00:11:10,690 --> 00:11:12,430 There has never been a spacecraft out there 236 00:11:12,430 --> 00:11:15,310 that has had such a large deployable sun shield 237 00:11:15,310 --> 00:11:18,120 with so many intricate steps. 238 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,920 And it took a lot of technology, brand-new technology, 239 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,350 in order to develop the correct shape, 240 00:11:23,350 --> 00:11:26,640 the number of layers, the folding methodology, 241 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,943 and even the deployment system is all brand-new. 242 00:11:29,943 --> 00:11:32,526 (mellow music) 243 00:11:34,060 --> 00:11:36,690 After launch, and while still on its way 244 00:11:36,690 --> 00:11:40,690 to its operating position, Webb will have to unfold 245 00:11:40,690 --> 00:11:43,183 this incredibly complex piece of equipment. 246 00:11:44,140 --> 00:11:47,660 Years of computer simulation and physical testing 247 00:11:47,660 --> 00:11:49,580 have gone into the design, 248 00:11:49,580 --> 00:11:52,023 but it's still a critical phase of the mission. 249 00:11:53,670 --> 00:11:56,890 There's 178 release mechanisms on the James Webb, 250 00:11:56,890 --> 00:11:58,950 and they're responsible for initiating 251 00:11:58,950 --> 00:12:01,200 James Webb's unfolding sequence. 252 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,550 All of these 178 release mechanisms 253 00:12:03,550 --> 00:12:05,600 are single-point failures, which means, 254 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:07,660 every single one of them has to work. 255 00:12:07,660 --> 00:12:10,280 And so we have one shot to make this right. 256 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,660 It is a scary thought. 257 00:12:12,660 --> 00:12:14,370 I sleep better at night knowing 258 00:12:14,370 --> 00:12:16,640 that we've done everything that we can 259 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:19,850 to make sure that James Webb is going to work right 260 00:12:19,850 --> 00:12:21,253 the very first time. 261 00:12:22,370 --> 00:12:24,300 If it works as expected, 262 00:12:24,300 --> 00:12:27,303 the sun shield will offer extraordinary performance. 263 00:12:28,940 --> 00:12:31,810 Around plus 200 degrees Fahrenheit, 264 00:12:31,810 --> 00:12:33,130 the Sun is always heading it, 265 00:12:33,130 --> 00:12:36,310 which is very close to the boiling point of water. 266 00:12:36,310 --> 00:12:39,620 And on the other side of this five layer umbrella 267 00:12:39,620 --> 00:12:43,670 that we deployed, it gets to minus 388, almost minus 400. 268 00:12:43,670 --> 00:12:48,270 We created a 600-degree Fahrenheit differential, 269 00:12:48,270 --> 00:12:50,190 which would be like putting sunscreen on 270 00:12:50,190 --> 00:12:52,364 at 1.2 million SPF, right? 271 00:12:52,364 --> 00:12:54,970 (mellow music) 272 00:12:54,970 --> 00:12:56,520 With the design finalized 273 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,730 and the major components built, 274 00:12:58,730 --> 00:13:00,260 testing the system proved to be 275 00:13:00,260 --> 00:13:01,773 one of the biggest challenges. 276 00:13:03,690 --> 00:13:05,930 At a million miles out, the James Webb 277 00:13:05,930 --> 00:13:09,820 will be too far away to be repaired or updated by humans, 278 00:13:09,820 --> 00:13:12,403 like the Hubble space telescope was. 279 00:13:12,403 --> 00:13:14,400 (mellow music) 280 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:17,783 Everything had to be proven to work here on Earth. 281 00:13:17,783 --> 00:13:20,366 (mellow music) 282 00:13:21,260 --> 00:13:23,230 We had learned from Hubble, 283 00:13:23,230 --> 00:13:25,630 that one thing which was really important 284 00:13:25,630 --> 00:13:29,810 was to test out all the systems, including the optics. 285 00:13:29,810 --> 00:13:32,220 And so all that testing has to be done. 286 00:13:32,220 --> 00:13:33,900 One of the hardest things engineers 287 00:13:33,900 --> 00:13:36,850 have had to do on Webb is work on the ground 288 00:13:36,850 --> 00:13:40,410 and simulate zero G, because otherwise, 289 00:13:40,410 --> 00:13:42,660 we're going to deploy something on the ground 290 00:13:42,660 --> 00:13:45,660 that'll either break because gravity will pull it out, 291 00:13:45,660 --> 00:13:48,450 or it'll give us a false feeling that it deployed, 292 00:13:48,450 --> 00:13:49,930 but only gravity pulled it out. 293 00:13:49,930 --> 00:13:51,740 Then I get on space and gravity is in there. 294 00:13:51,740 --> 00:13:54,000 What if it doesn't open up on its own? 295 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:55,060 Now, if you're an astronaut, 296 00:13:55,060 --> 00:13:57,040 you want to simulate zero G, 297 00:13:57,040 --> 00:13:58,800 they do it a lot in pools, right? 298 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,097 Well, I can't put the telescope in a pool (laughs). 299 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,810 So we have engineers literally designing things 300 00:14:04,810 --> 00:14:06,800 where we do counterbalance weights 301 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:08,100 through a series of pulleys, 302 00:14:08,100 --> 00:14:10,830 and as we're driving the optic up alone, 303 00:14:10,830 --> 00:14:14,570 that's 8,000 pounds, we offload it, 304 00:14:14,570 --> 00:14:18,760 precisely pulls it with the opposite force of gravity. 305 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:20,910 Otherwise, we could break it on the ground. 306 00:14:21,889 --> 00:14:24,472 (somber music) 307 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:29,570 Another challenge was to confirm 308 00:14:29,570 --> 00:14:31,450 that the telescope could be adjusted 309 00:14:31,450 --> 00:14:34,973 and operated at cryogenic temperatures in a vacuum. 310 00:14:36,530 --> 00:14:40,323 So it was taken in it's custom-built transporter to Houston, 311 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:43,560 the site of one of the world's largest 312 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:45,770 cryogenic vacuum chambers. 313 00:14:45,770 --> 00:14:48,353 (mellow music) 314 00:14:50,430 --> 00:14:52,700 As we all know, shrinkage is a thing. 315 00:14:52,700 --> 00:14:55,090 When things get cold, they shrink, they get smaller. 316 00:14:55,090 --> 00:14:57,110 And when they get warm, they expand. 317 00:14:57,110 --> 00:15:00,270 Well, we're building this telescope at room temperature, 318 00:15:00,270 --> 00:15:04,040 but it has to operate at super cold temperatures. 319 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:05,960 We actually had to build the optics 320 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:07,630 and the structures that hold them 321 00:15:09,210 --> 00:15:11,440 exactly wrong at room temperatures, 322 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:13,740 so that they are precisely correct, 323 00:15:13,740 --> 00:15:16,040 the cryogenic operating temperatures 324 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:17,563 that they will be at. 325 00:15:19,140 --> 00:15:20,880 That's an incredible challenge, 326 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:23,910 not only for designing and fabricating, 327 00:15:23,910 --> 00:15:26,930 but for testing, 'cause now to test this thing, 328 00:15:26,930 --> 00:15:30,210 I've got to put it into a big vacuum chamber. 329 00:15:30,210 --> 00:15:32,570 The relic of the Apollo era was refurbished 330 00:15:32,570 --> 00:15:37,570 to be this magnificent cryo-optical thermal test facility, 331 00:15:38,580 --> 00:15:40,150 and suck all the air out, 332 00:15:40,150 --> 00:15:42,480 make the inside of that chamber really, really cold. 333 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:43,590 Down to its operating temperature, 334 00:15:43,590 --> 00:15:46,410 we can test and verify that, oh, yay, 335 00:15:46,410 --> 00:15:49,523 verily, it does work at its cold temperatures. 336 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,950 That's really a point of achievement and pride, 337 00:15:54,950 --> 00:15:56,102 I think, for us. 338 00:15:56,102 --> 00:15:57,900 (mellow music) 339 00:15:57,900 --> 00:15:59,720 The telescope was also subjected 340 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:02,740 to multiple vibration and acoustic tests 341 00:16:02,740 --> 00:16:05,120 to make sure that it could withstand the shaking 342 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:07,680 and the noise of being launched into space 343 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:09,369 on top of a rocket. 344 00:16:09,369 --> 00:16:11,952 (mellow music) 345 00:16:13,410 --> 00:16:16,080 Finally, after even more testing, 346 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,960 the instrument was approved in July 2021, 347 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:24,458 25 years and $10 billion after it was first proposed. 348 00:16:24,458 --> 00:16:27,240 (mellow music) 349 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:28,430 But we've done it. 350 00:16:28,430 --> 00:16:30,090 We have made this machine. 351 00:16:30,090 --> 00:16:33,630 We have brought the resources of NASA at ESA 352 00:16:33,630 --> 00:16:36,250 and the Canadian Space Agency, and all of the industries, 353 00:16:36,250 --> 00:16:38,520 and all of the scientists, the engineers, 354 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,273 we've made an astonishing machine. 355 00:16:42,890 --> 00:16:45,320 Here we are, and we're about to launch it. 356 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:47,780 And it will just demonstrate 357 00:16:47,780 --> 00:16:49,067 that if you put your mind to it 358 00:16:49,067 --> 00:16:50,910 and you stick the course, 359 00:16:50,910 --> 00:16:53,060 you can achieve astonishing things. 360 00:16:53,060 --> 00:16:55,080 And that's a lesson which has applicability 361 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:59,230 well beyond what you do in space with telescopes. 362 00:16:59,230 --> 00:17:01,841 It's a lesson for life. 363 00:17:01,841 --> 00:17:04,424 (bright music) 364 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:08,170 The James Webb space telescope 365 00:17:08,170 --> 00:17:10,930 is scheduled to launch from French Guiana 366 00:17:10,930 --> 00:17:14,833 on an Ariane 5 rocket, like this one, in December. 367 00:17:16,550 --> 00:17:19,820 My fantasy for that moment when it's all done 368 00:17:19,820 --> 00:17:22,623 is to just kind of sneak out of the control center. 369 00:17:23,980 --> 00:17:25,640 I just want to be alone. 370 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:26,960 I want to get the biggest, 371 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,080 fattest, stinkiest, ugliest cigar, 372 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,030 smoke it with the ghosts of the Apollo engineers, 373 00:17:33,030 --> 00:17:35,560 the way they used to do when their mission was successful. 374 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:36,853 That's my fantasy.