[Satellite Today 04-10-09] Northrop Grumman completed the first series of cryogenic temperature tests on the mirror segment that will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a next-generation space observatory, the company announced April 9.
    Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the telescope, leading a design and development team under contract to NASA. Ball Aerospace is the principal optical subcontractor.
    "It has taken years of intense effort for the Webb Telescope team to begin flight mirror cryotesting, and we’re gratified that testing was successful. Along the way, we’ve had to invent entire manufacturing and measurement processes because no one has ever built a telescope this large that has to operate at temperatures this extreme,” Martin Mohan, program manager forNorthrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector, said in a statement.