Some good news about JWST.
After aligning the eighteen segments of the primary mirror to the secondary mirror and one instrument, the next step was to align more instruments. That step has now been completed, according to a NASA press release on April 1. The telescope is now aligned to the Near-Infrared Camera, Near-Infrared Slitless Spectrograph, Near-Infrared Spectrometer, and Fine Guidance Sensor. All that remains is the Mid-Infrared Instrument, which will be aligned once it has cooled down to operating temperatures.
Teams planned to do one more fine adjustment of the secondary mirror but decided it was unnecessary because the coarse adjustment was so good. According to Chanda Walker, wavefront sensing and control scientist at Ball Aerospace: This accomplishment was due to many years of planning and great teamwork among the wavefront sensing team.
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