Webb completes sixth stage of seven mirror alignment phases: What's next?

NASA said on Friday that the James Webb Space Telescope, the world's most powerful and most complex space science telescope ever built, has completed the sixth stage of the mirror alignment process and is now gearing up for the seventh and final stage.

While Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is still in cooldown mode, the optics teams have successfully aligned the rest of the observatory's onboard instruments to its mirrors.

With the completion of this most recent step, Webb is now aligned to the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS), the Near-Infrared Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), and the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) as well as NIRCam.

NASA said that the previous alignment efforts were so accurate that the team concluded no additional adjustments are necessary for Webb's secondary mirror until the seventh stage. This seventh and final stage will also involve Webb's MIRI instrument, the last instrument to be aligned, when it has fully cooled.

Now let's get in formation 😎 3 out of #NASAWebb's 4 instruments have been successfully aligned to its mirrors! This concludes the 6th stage of its 7 mirror alignment phases to create the most accurate & focused images possible: https://t.co/VjxlpXc857 #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/SDyDYQLnaB

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) April 1, 2022

What's next?

Once MIRI fully cools to its cryogenic operating temperature - just under 7 degrees above absolute zero - a second multi-instrument alignment will occur to make final adjustments to the instruments and mirrors if needed. Once the telescope is fully aligned, the team will then transition to commissioning each instrument for scientific operations, which are expected to begin this summer.

Webb was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on December 25, 2021. The premier observatory is designed to answer outstanding questions about the Universe and make breakthrough discoveries to help humanity understand the origins of the universe, complementing and extending the discoveries of existing space-based observatories like Hubble.