Scheduled for launch in 2013 aboard an Ariane 5, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the successor to Hubble (launched in 1990), which is currently operational, providing spectacular results and images from the earliest phases of our universe. Astrium's predecessor companies supplied Hubble's Faint Object Camera (FOC), which operated perfectly on board Hubble until 1997 – the only remaining first-generation instrument.
The 'final' size of this new universal telescope, covering the visible to mid-infrared range, greatly exceeds the loading dimensions of all existing launchers. The telescope with its 6.5 metre, 18-segment primary mirror and tennis-court-sized sunshield will therefore only be deployed in orbit.
In order to examine the history of the origins of our universe, JWST is equipped with four instruments: Astrium’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), a Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCAM) developed by University of Arizona, a Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), a collaborative project between the Joint Propulsion Laboratory and ESA leading a consortium of European institutes with project management support provided by Astrium UK, and a Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) provided by the Canadian Space Agency.
ESA awarded Astrium the contract to build the NIRSpec 'super-eye' for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in August 2004. This 200 kg spectrograph will be able to detect the faintest radiation from the most distant galaxies and measure spectra of more than 100 objects simultaneously. In order to do this, the instrument must be able to operate at a temperature of –238 degree Celsius. Astrium is currently developing the instrument at its sites in Friedrichshafen and Ottobrunn, Germany.
MIRI is being built within a joint venture between a European consortium and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. AEU is leading the European scientific community in delivering its part of the MIRI instrument by providing the 10-nation European consortium with project and systems engineering management and PA expertise.
