Space rock damages £8bn Nasa super-telescope
NASA’S state-of-the-art $10 billion (£8billion) space telescope was damaged by a micrometeoroid last month, which knocked one of its mirror segments ahead of its first deployment.
The collision was the largest since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most powerful space-based observatory ever built, launched in December. It was also much larger than the space agency had planned for.
In case of serious malfunctions, Nasa’s team of scientists are only able to troubleshoot from the ground, so the JWST will have to make do with the damaged mirror until the end of its mission, in five to 10 years.
But experts yesterday said that the damage would not alter the orbiting observatory’s schedule to become fully operational shortly.
“After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements,” Nasa said.
It is due to finish calibrating the telescope in the next few weeks and release its first coloured images on July 12.