How NASA used origami to launch the largest observatory in space
To capture the universe's dimmest infrared light, the James Webb Space Telescope needed a massive mirror. But how do you fit a structure larger than a tennis court inside a narrow rocket? The answer lies in a brilliant, high-stakes feat of space-bound origami.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) represents a massive leap in scale compared to its predecessor, Hubble. While Hubble utilizes a single, 2.4-meter circular mirror, Webb employs a segmented, hexagonal design. This primary mirror spans 6.6 meters in diameter, providing a collecting area of 25.37 square meters—roughly 5.6 times the area of Hubble's mirror [S2:p6]. This increased surface area is essential for detecting the faint infrared light traveling from the distant universe [S2:p2, S2:p6].
However, this unprecedented size created a physical impossibility: the telescope was too large to fit inside any existing launch vehicle. To solve this, engineers designed the observatory to fold upon itself [S2:prim]. During its journey to a station one million miles from Earth, the telescope must undergo a complex, automated deployment sequence [S2:p3]. This includes unfurling a massive sunshield, which measures approximately 21.2 meters by 14.2 meters—an area comparable to a tennis court [S2:p3, S2:p5].
The precision required for this deployment is immense. The telescope was stowed in a cylindrical space only 16.19 meters long and 4.57 meters wide within the Ariane 5 rocket [S2:p4]. To fit this tight payload fairing, the observatory had to be compressed to roughly one-quarter of its full size [S2:p4]. Beyond the mirror, the telescope must also remain extremely cold to prevent its own heat from interfering with infrared observations, a challenge managed by the massive, multi-layered sunshield [S2:p2].
Source: The Genius Geometry of the James Webb Space Telescope
